


The Adventures and Friendship of Four Dudes Trying Not to Get Fucked to Death: The Musical (DEAD)

by BakaSmurf



Category: Corruption of Champions
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, Roleplay, Self-Insert, dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-11-04 00:53:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 48,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10978959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BakaSmurf/pseuds/BakaSmurf
Summary: If you could go on an adventure, where would you go? Who would you meet? What would you experience? What will you find? With all the possibility the universe has to offer, do you truly believe that the mind can come to a firm decision?I should think not! But, imagine, if the decision was never truly up to you in the first place! Rather, one day you find yourself away from home, far removed from anything familiar or comforting. Would you press onward, and go forth into greatness? Anything is possible when it comes to the search for glory!--*Record Scratch*--Too bad, motherfucker!This is not one of those stories.===This is a collaborative work between Fission Battery, Dr. Doctor, luckychaos, Alleydodger, and BakaSmurf. This what happens when monster girl self insert writers get together and decided to go nsfw.Reposted from Questionable Questing.===





	1. Chapter 1

“What the fu-” Rocket had begun to scream, his cry of alarm getting cut off as he plowed face first in a thick mound of crimson dirt. He slid for a good three or four feet, the soft earth leaving a perfect imprint of his prostrate form as it dragged across the surface.  
  
“Ow.” He mumbled out, closing his eyes.  
  
Pain racked the Biker’s entire body. However, he learned to count the little blessings. After all, for a moment he had been driving on the highway that led to his Grandmother’s house. She cooked the best turkey; Thanksgiving at mee maws’ was the best.  
  
But he digressed.  
  
Fingers digging into the dirt, he felt his head shoot up with the speed of a flying bullet, soil encrusting the grooves of his visor as he looked around.  
  
“This is definitely not I-95.” He grumbled, his voice hoarse as he finally staggered to his feet.  
  
Everything was certainly...red. Rather, everything was red! Upon the crimson sky drifted velvet clouds. All underneath his feet were rolling mounds of moist and soft sanguine dirt. Reaching down and removing a glove, he touched a little bit of the stuff.  
  
Huh, it all felt normal and real enough. Yet…  
  
“This place looks like a fucking demonic hellhole.” Rocket noted, placing his glove back over his hand. Stuffing his hands into the front pocket of his jacket, he looked around a little bit more.  
  
“Where’s my bike?”  
  
A deafening screech from behind him answered his question, his motorcycle appearing in his peripherals as it plowed back wheel first into the sand.  
  
“Oh, there it is.”  
  
There was a noise behind him, and he turned to see what it was. Only a few inches off the ground, was a large shimmering portal, the surface covered by the swirling patterns of various hues of pink and purple.  
  
Though it came a tall man dressed in jeans and a hoodie, who stumbled and nearly fell face first before righting himself. He looked around frantically at the surrounding landscape. “What the fuck?”  
  
“Yo, what the fuck?” The Biker said as he observed such a baffling occurrence. “Who are you!” He jabbed a finger into the guy’s chest. “Did you send me here? Where’s the exit? I want out!”  
  
Booker sputtered in bafflement. “Wha-what?! Why the fuck are you asking me?! I have no idea what the fuck is going on!”  
  
“Bull-fucking-horse shit!” Rocket replied, crossing his arms. “You’re Satan! Trying to trick me so I give more and more of my soul to you so you can do your nefarious deeds!”  
  
He looked at the biker, who was clearly out of his mind, in sheer bewilderment. “What in the actual fuck are you going on about? I have no idea who you are or where we are or what all this-” he frantically gestured to the blood red ground, “-is! Why are you blaming me? I’m as confused as you are!”  
  
“Well, I don’t know! It’s not everyday you blink and wind up in some alternate universe looking place that throws into disarray all your beliefs and everything you have ever known!” Rocket shrugged. “Besides, if you’re not sure what’s going on, then how are you doing that!”  
  
“Doing what?!”  
  
“Your arm!” He hollered. “It’s like you got a gauntlet made of rock or something! Look at all the little dirt particles swirling around you.”  
  
“What?” He glanced at his arm and let out a shout of surprise as he saw pebbles and dirt swirling around it, moving like a texture glitch thing in a video game; its movements jerky and unnatural. He violently shook his arm to get it off, but to no avail. “Ah! What’s going on?!”  
  
“I don’t know! But don’t touch me, you might be contagious!”  
  
He kept shaking his arm, but was polite enough to take a few steps away from the biker dude. In his semi-panic he tried brushing the dirt off with his hand, only to end up covering his other arm with more of it. In a moment of clarity he stared at both his arms, mini-dust tornadoes swirling around them. “I… I should have seen this coming.”  
  
“It sounds like you’ve never done that before.” Rocket stated simply, taking a tentative step forward. “If you don’t know what’s going on, and neither do I, then what I suppose it’d be in our best interest to somehow work together to figure out how to get outta here.”  
  
He extended his arm, offering the man his hand. “I don’t think you’re contagious, but uh, nice to meet you?”  
  
Booker gently shook his arms one last time, still unable to dislodge the dirt and pebbles, he sighed in exasperation and grasped the extended hand with his own. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, and it’s nice to meet you too, I’m Booker… and no, not the guy from Bioshock Infinite.”  
  
“Rocket.” The Biker replied curtly. “I know what you mean. Nice to meet you, either way. So, first order of business; what’re your skillsets? In case we need to accomplish anything specifically in order to cut our time short here.” Pausing, he lifted up his visor. “Sorry, it’s appropriate to talk face-to-face for these kinda things, huh?”  
  
“Yeah, much easier than chatting to an impassive visor. As for skill sets… Uh, I know a lot about history and anthropology.” He paused and then sighed. “But I’m guessing that’s of no use here.” he glanced around again. “Wherever here is.”  
  
Rocket nodded. “Biology man, m’self. I know the jist of it, just don’t expect me to be able to cut you open and do surgery. I also went through around two years of ROTC, not sure how I’ll apply that here, though.”  
  
“ROTC?” He asked. “Uh, what’s that?”  
  
“Reserve Officer Training Corps.” Rocket answered. “It’s where the Army preps you to become an officer in the military while you’re still in college.”  
  
“Ah okay.” He nodded. “I know someone who’s doing that.”  
  
Turning away, the Biker placed his hands on his hips. “It looks like a vast desert of some sort. That, or a wasteland. We should keep our eyes peeled; get somewhere else before we die of thirst or starvation, if the elements don’t get us first.”  
  
“Yeah, good plan.” Booker glanced back at the portal. “I’m tempted to stick around here to see if anything else comes out or try to go back through, but it probably won’t end well.”  
  
“Alright. Luckily, I have my bike. So, hop on back and we’ll go anywhere but here.” Rocket gestured towards his motorcycle, swung his leg over it and jammed the keys into the ignition. “Find someplace with water; shelter if we’re lucky.”  
  
Booker walked over to the bike and eyed it with unease. “I’ve never ridden one before, so uh, is there anything I should do? I don’t want to lean or something when I shouldn’t have and make us crash.”  
  
“I installed a backseater on it so it could fit two. If you don’t want to grab my waist, just hold on to the bars placed on the side. When I lean, you lean. It’s as simple as that.” Rocket reassured, tapping the spot behind him. “Now get your fat ass on here, Booker.”  
  
He frowned at the fat comment, but didn’t say anything, instead awkwardly getting onto the bike and grabbing the handle bars.  
  
\---  
  
One moment, Juyo was walking into his garage, car keys twirling in his hand, and the next moment he found himself surrounded by the color purple. He froze where he stood, slowly spinning his head around, until the world, such as it was, shuddered and heaved. Everything got all spinny at that point and Juyo proceeded to scream like a little girl as he lost all sense of time and place.  
  
He then found his sense of place shoved roughly into his face by filthy red dirt.  
  
“The fucking…” Juyo mumbled into the ground, puffs of dust shooting into the air from this breath. For some reason, he was tasting the color purple. He didn’t how or why he thought that, but if a color had a flavor, it was certainly that.  
  
Slowly, his entire body in a sort of dull pain, he began to push himself back up. After making sure his glasses weren’t broken and wiping them, Juyo tried to make stock of his situation. Red dirt, as far as the eye could see. He looked up and saw an equally red sky, but with… velvet? Yeah, velvet clouds.  
  
“Um.” That was pretty much the sum total of his thought process at that moment. “Mars? With an atmosphere? Maybe?”  
  
He started tasting purple again, followed by a familiar shuddering sound. He spun around to see a violet hole in reality crack into being a few feet away from him, which promptly spat out a guy who looked a lot like white Jesus Christ.  
  
The Jesus impersonator hit the dirt with a cry of ‘Fuck me!’, before he rolled over onto his back and just laid there for a moment staring up at the alien sky. “Shit. The world’s gone all DOOM on me.”  
  
He closed his eyes for a minute, then opened them back up. When nothing changed, he jolted and staggered to his feet; Looking around wildly. Now standing, he hastily dusted off his tracksuit pants and shirt. He spotted Juyo, and jerked a finger at him. “Hey buddy, the fuck is goin’ on.”  
  
Juyo tilted his head at the Australian accent, before shrugging and trying in vain to wipe out the rest of the dirt in his beard. “Hell if I know,” he replied, sweeping his gaze across the landscape. “Some kinda interdimensional bullshit, I’m assuming. You know, when I bitched this morning about having to go to work, this wasn’t exactly how I pictured that being resolved. Oh, I’m Juyo, btdubs.”  
  
“If it wasn’t for the sky lookin’ like it was about to birth Satan, I’d have figured we were somewhere in the ass-end of the outback.” The long-haired aussie said, spitting out a few hairs that had stuck to his face. He glanced down at his bare feet. “Fuck, wish I had brought shoes. This is gunna suck. Oh right, I’m Nilas. Or Jesus, or whatever. People tend to call me it.”  
  
Juyo nodded. “Cool cool. So…” He trailed off as the sound of something very loud steadily grew closer. “Wait, is that a motorcycle?”  
  
Sure enough, a black motorcycle appeared over the top of a nearby hill, atop it riding two other guys. One was actually wearing the helmet, while the other, large man looked uncomfortable on the back. The larger one’s head perked up when he spotted the two of them and tapped the driver’s shoulder, pointing in the direction of Juyo and Nilas. After making a turn that was definitely sharper than necessary, they began heading straight for them.  
  
“Booker! We were just here! Taking a right got us nowhere!” Rocket sputtered, pulling up towards the two individuals as he cocked his head. “Well, I guess two more cheerly boyos decide to join the party away from dear ol’ Earth, eh?” He revved his bike, as if to punctuate his words.  
  
“Fucking great,” Booker muttered out loud, “we’ve got some time and space warping non-euclidean geometry bullshit going on.”  
  
Rocket shrugged. “This day just keeps gettin’ better and better doesn’t it?” He turned to the two newcomers. “I’ll do what I did to this tub o’ lard sittin’ in the back. I need your name and your skillset. Unless you want to lone wolf it, then I suggest we all get to know each other.”  
  
“Hey! Enough with the fat jokes!” Booker exclaimed in annoyance, then glanced at the two newcomers. “Also, don’t worry about, uh, that.” He glanced to the trail of dust following behind the bike and the cloud swirling around his arms. “It’s… well not normal by any stretch of the imagination, but it only started after I got here.”  
  
“Oh goody, we’re trapped in an alternate dimension that treats basic physics more like a suggestion,” Juyo groused, shaking his head. “Anyway, I’m Juyo. Got a B.A. in English, which is _of course_ useless in this kind of situation, know some Thai, and, uh…” He patted down his pockets and fished out a few items. “I have my phone, no bars, my wallet, and car keys sans the actual car. I guess I could shank someone with them. Uh… yeah, all I got.”  
  
“Eh, don’t worry too much about it, I majored in humanities and social sciences.” He scoffed. “Useless, right? I don’t think anything short of a survivalist class and years of experience would do us any good out here.”  
  
Nilas crossed his arms, and raised his eyebrows at the motorbike rider. “I’m Jesus.” He started sarcastically. “I can turn water into wine, and make a shit-ton of fish and bread.”  
  
“Oh really? I thought you were Eric Idle.”  
  
Nilas’ expression turned confused. “Who the hell is Eric I-” His nose twitched, and he stopped mid-sentence to rub at it. “Argh, fucking dust.”  
  
“Not my fault.” Booker raised his hand in response.  
  
His face scrunched up in that stupid way it does when you’re about to sneeze. Mouth half open and eye crossed like an idiot. After a few false-starts, he jerked forward and let out a resounding sneeze.  
  
Which caused the dirt around his feet to explode into the air.  
  
“Yo, what the fuck! Booker, you gave him the heeby jeeby voodoo shit!” Rocket reprimanded, turning around and glaring at Tubby angrily.  
  
“Hey don’t blame me! That looked like it came from him!” He shouted back to Rocket.  
  
Meanwhile, in the middle of the red cloud, Nilas was coughing. “Oh god, it’s in my fucking mouth! The fuck was that!”  
  
“Can we please clarify what the ‘voodoo shit’ is before we do _anything else?”_ Juyo spoke up, putting a little more distance between himself and the rest.  
  
“Booker over here can control the rocks or some shit…” Rocket began, gesturing behind himself. “And Jesus over there just looked like he sneezed out a fucking gale-force wind powerful enough to part the red sea.”  
  
“Oh. Neat.” Juyo looked over at Rocket. “And what do you do? There might be a theme going on here.”  
  
“I ain’t like you freaks.” He replied, crossing his arms. “I’m as normal as normal can be.”  
  
“I object to being called a freak, thank you very much.” Booker interjected.  
  
“Uh huh,” Juyo replied skeptically in Rocket’s direction. “Then why are your fingertips smoking?”  
  
“Huh?” Rocket looked down, his eyes widening behind his visor as he observed his suddenly -lit- fingertips. “Hey, what the actual fuck!” Crying out in alarm, he removed his glove, tossing it down to the dirt and stomping on it vigorously.  
  
“That should have done i-” Rocket started, only pausing when he noticed that while his fingers were no longer emitting whisps of smoke, his **entire** hand was on fire.  
  
“Oh shit! Oh fucking Jesus, Oh God, Oh man!” He screamed, throwing himself to the floor. “Stop, drop, and roll! Stop, drop, and roll!”  
  
“Ah what the fuck?!” Booker shouted, and leaned back in his seat away from Rocket, struggling to keep the bike standing upright on his own.  
  
“You heard him, Jesus, Nilas, whatever, sneeze on him to blow it out or something!” Juyo cried out, not entirely sure Rocket was begging Nilas for help but not really caring either way.  
  
Nilas would have responded, but he seemed busy with a dust devil that had apparently manifested around him just moments ago.  
  
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Juyo rambled, mind running in circles until something clicked. If Booker had earth, Nilas had air, and Rocket had fire, then maybe… “Fuck it, worth a shot!” he decided. He raised his hands, imaging the moisture in the air, every single water molecule in front of him, and _pulled…_  
  
Nothing.  
  
“Okay, Okay, let me try this!” Rocket breathed out, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply.  
  
_Put me out._ He thought. _Extinguish. Extinguish. Extinguish._  
  
He cracked open an eye to find that…  
  
**HIS ENTIRE BODY WAS ON FIRE!**  
  
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  
  
“Oh shit! Oh shit!” Booker, frantically hopped off the bike, letting it hit the dirt, and glanced at his arms. “Please for the love of god work! DIRT! DO SOMETHING!” He waved at at Rocket, gesturing for the dirt surrounded him to put out the fire.  
  
The cloud of dirt and pebbles actually moved towards Rocket, pelting him with small rocks and debris, but doing little to quell the flames.  
  
Rocket all but threw off his helmet as the smoke started to fill up and come out in billows out of his visor. “OH JESUS I’M BURNING! AND...AND….”  
  
He paused, letting flames smoulder for a little bit.  
  
“This doesn’t hurt.”  
  
And thus he stood there, staring at everyone as he still remained a human torch. The four of them just stared at each other in silence, the only sounds that of the fire crackling, the pebbles feebly poking at Rocket’s feet, and the slowly-calming dust devil around Nilas.  
  
“Hey, Booker. Can you get the water bottle outta my saddle bag?” Rocket finally said.  
  
“Uh, sure…” He was staring at the human torch impersonator, then looked back at the bike, sitting on its side in the dirt. “Uh, Rocket? Where’s your bag?”  
  
“It’s on the right side of the bike,” Juyo answered without hesitation, before blinking and furrowing his brows. “Wait, how did I know that?” He narrowed his eyes, realizing that he could feel, or sense, a stale, small amount of water at the exact location he’d pointed out. Somehow. Before his head hurt too much thinking about it, he sighed. “I guess that confirms that theory, then.”  
  
With the miniature dust-storm around him having calmed enough, Nilas had begun to rather disgustingly clear out his mouth and nose of dust; Which involved lots of spitting and snorting. He managed to wheeze out through a dry, dust-caked mouth, “What theory?”  
  
“The four of us are now Benders,” Juyo explained. “Y’know, all four elements and whatnot? Whatever sent us here evidently wanted us to stick to a theme, I guess.”  
  
“All four elements?’ Nilas asked incredulously, wiping at his eyes, “The hell are you- HOLY SHIT FIRE!”  
  
“Yeah, fire is technically a chemical reaction I think rather than an actual element.” Booker pointed out.  
  
“Did you know back in the 1800s whalers used fat to fuel their lamps?” Rocket asked, turning to Booker and making a fist.  
  
“Neat history lesson,” Juyo snorted. “And I’m not referring to the periodic table, more like the usual fantasy trope where air, water, earth, and fire are the elements.”  
  
“Oh I knew what you meant. It’s called being a smart ass.”  
  
“Ok, so this is just normal now?” Nilas pointed at the burning Rocket. “Sure, why not.”  
  
Rocket’s body had now simmered down into a smouldering little waft of smoke, finally extinguished. “Huh, I’m good now, I guess. Think we should all set up shop here?” He gestured all around. “Physics is fucked up.”  
  
**The Group has discovered THE CAMP!**

“We have zero camping supplies.”  
  
Nilas glanced up from where he was staring at his hands, thinking, and shrugged. “Sure, whatever. Not much else we can do.”  
  
“We have zero everything, besides the clothing on our back… and that bike.” Booker motioned his head in towards the bike.  
  
“Well, I guess we’re gonna have to start looking.” Rocket nodded. “I can only take two on the bike, so the both of ya’ll are gonna have to go on foot somewhere else.” He paused. “Who knows how to fight?”  
  
“I don’t.” Booker unhelpfully supplied.  
  
“I used to do Tae Kwon Do waaaaay back in the day,” Juyo offered. “But I’ve been out of practice for like ten years, so don’t expect much more than reflex self-defense stuff.”  
  
“Oh joy. Walking with no shoes on.” Nilas grumbled under his breath. “Fun.”  
  
He spoke up. “Yeah, nah. You lookin for a fighter, it ain’t me.”  
  
“Hey, Jesus.” Rocket began, walking up to his bike. “I got a pair of shoes. They’re a bit wide, but they might fit. What’s your size? I’m a ten and a half.”  
  
“Yeeeeah, those aren’t gunna fit.” Nilas said.  
  
“Too big?” Rocket asked.  
  
“Eight.”  
  
“I’m a twelve and a half or thirteen… not that it matters.” Booker unhelpfully supplied again.  
  
“Better too big than too small.” Rocket continued, disregarding tubby’s bullshit. Reaching into the bag, he took out a pair of white New Balance running shoes, tossing them towards his Lord and Savior. “Put em’ on.”  
  
The Shepherd himself caught the shoes out of the air, and nodded gratefully. “A’ight, thanks.”  
  
He sat down, then went about slipping them on.  
  
“What about you, Big Booker?” Rocket began. “You know how to take a hit?”  
  
“Nope, never gotten into a fight in my life, besides a few shoving matches with my brother when I was younger.” He shrugged. “I mean, I got a size advantage, but I’m not that strong actually.”  
  
“Fuck it.” Rocket said, facepalming. “I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Who wants to ride and who wants to stay on foot?”  
  
“Eh, I’ll stay on foot.” Nilas said, “I wanna check something, anyway.”  
  
“I guess I’m riding then.” Booker made his way over to the bike.  
  
“Hop on then.” Rocket started, revving up his bike. “And remember, think about leaving this place. If you don’t we’ll be back to square one.”  
  
“Alright.” He replied as he got back onto the bike. “You know, if that’s how this really works, then I’ve got some inkling where we might be. I hope this doesn’t sound weird to ask, but have any of you guys ever heard of a web text game called Corruption of Champions?”  
  
“No.” Rocket replied, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead behind his visor.  
  
“Nope,” Juyo replied easily, though it seemed like his mind was elsewhere.  
  
Nilas looked up from where he sat. “What? Fucked up fetishes: the game?”  
  
“Yeah, that’s the one.”  
  
The Jesus look-alike looked back down. “Nope. Never heard of it.”  
  
“Well, either way, it only springs to mind because in the game the character couldn’t travel around normally, like, space was fucking warped and didn’t work normally at all. You could explore, and at the start the game made it very clear that thinking about a place brings you back to it instantly.” Booker explained. “Which we experienced only a few minutes ago. We drove in a straight line and ended up back where we started from. I mean, it’s a silly jump to make because that game doesn’t have a monopoly on non-euclidean movement, but it crossed my mind.” He sheepishly shrugged his shoulders.  
  
“Cool story, tubs.” Rocket chuckled. “Alright, we’re headin’ out.”  
  
He gripped the handlebars and shifted in the seat. “Ready to go when you are.”  
  
“Aight.” The Biker nodded, turning to the other two. “Remember, ya’ll don’t think of the camp when you leave this place. You’ll lose your way faster than you can say ‘I fucked up.’”  
  
With that said, he revved up his bike, and sped away.  
  
Juyo and Nilas watched them go, riding out across the rust-colored dunes until they were little more than a black speck kicking up dust. After a few more moments, Juyo sighed and started walking off to the edge of the Camp. “I’m gonna experiment with Waterbending for a bit,” he informed Nilas. “You?”  
  
Nilas looked up at Juyo. “Huh? Oh, I’m going to do the same. Except I’m an Airbender, apparently.” He looked a little stunned by the idea. “Shit, I don’t want to shave my head.”  
  
Juyo snorted. “Just because you’re an airbender doesn’t mean you’re a nomad,” he said jokingly. “Then again, I know dick all about this world, so maybe they’re floating around, too. You know how Airbending works, at least?”  
  
“Uh…” Nilas stroked his facial hair, “It’s all flowing and spinny, right? I never really watched the series properly.”  
  
“I’ve watched it probably five times and have most of it memorized by heart,” Juyo laughed. “I remember a couple forms and how to make the air scooter, at least in theory. Practice would be hard as balls, though. This tip should help at least: if your feet are flat on the ground, you’re doing it wrong.”  
  
“Shit, It’s more than I was expecting to have to work with,” Nilas chuckled. “Thanks, I’ll give it a shot. I remember the air scooter thing. That’d be sick to learn.”  
  
“It’d definitely be a good substitute for flight. Though I’m honestly not sure if you’d be able to manage flight without a glider,” Juyo pondered, scratching his chin. “The only guy who could manage that was… kinda odd. Not to mention it’s _really_ high level.”  
  
Nilas hopped to his feet, dusting off the back of his pants. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be doing that anytime soon. But still, if Booker is right about where we might be. Being able to use those wind punches would be a life-saver.”  
  
“Totally,” Juyo agreed. “Which is why I’m gonna practice right the hell now. I may not know exactly what you guys are referencing, but it sounds god awful.”  
  
“Demons. Corruption. Food that changes you.” Nilas looked faintly ill at the idea that it was all real. “It’s… It has places where you can live a relatively normal life, but a lot of it is nightmarish.”  
  
Images of the factory jump into his mind, and the idea that _that_ was now real terrified him and made him furious at the same time.  
  
“Hm,” Juyo grunted, narrowing his eyes as he thought of the implications. “A demonic hellworld, but with some holdouts that don’t really have any hope left. That’s the feeling I’m getting here.”  
  
“There was _some_ hope. You played as a hero in the original game.” Nilas said. “If you chose to follow the story and get the good ending, you could destroy a corruption spreading factory. It wouldn’t solve the problem, but it would be a step towards it. Not sure when we are in that timeline, though, or if the hero even exists...”  
  
“Well, it’s a goal beyond basic survival, if anything,” Juyo nodded. “Anyway, gonna try some stuff. See if I can make a spear out of my piss. Should be fun.”  
  
Nilas snorts in surprised humour, grinning. “Hah. Well, alright then. I’m going to see if I can actually make the wind do anything. Good luck.”  
  
***  
  
“Hey Booker, watcha thinkin’ about?” Rocket began, deciding to start up a conversation to avoid dwelling in awkward silence. “It’s not about the camp, right? You can’t think about the camp.”  
  
“Well, I wasn’t before, but now I am.” He glanced around the landscape and desperately tried to put the camp out of his mind. “This place looks fucked up. I know that’s stating the obvious, but it feels like it wouldn’t be out of place in Mad Max.”  
  
“Huh, I suppose it does.” Rocket replied, nodding. “And I’m glad that you aren’t thinking about the camp, since I was thinking about it for a second a few minutes back.” He turned his head, only to suddenly swerve out of the way in order to avoid hitting Jesus and Juyo back at the camp. “Ah, fuck I thought about the camp when I said that I wouldn’t think about the camp. Dammit, Booker. I thought that you thought about the camp, but it turns out that you thought that I thought that you thought that Juyo thought that Jesus thought about the camp. Don’t. Think. About. The. Camp.”  
  
“If this a comedy routine Rocket I’m not laughing.” He glared at the back of Rocket’s head, then sighed. “Fucking hell, I didn’t think it would be that sensitive whenever you thought about a place.”  
  
As the camp faded into the distance behind them once again, Nilas voice followed them. "THE WIND. IT'S ANGRY! OR HORNY! WHO KNOWS WITH THIS FUCKING PLACE! IT’S IN MY EYES!"  
  
***  
  
“Damn, I could go for a sandwich. Maybe later we can go out and have a picnic or something-”  
  
**You have discovered the Forest!  
**

“And where the hell are we going to get the supplies for… that?” Booker responded to Rocket’s inane remark, but trailed off as they found themselves surrounded by trees and thick foliage. “Well shit, it’s a forest.”

Rocket hadn’t been keeping his eyes on the road, a fact that became evident to him when something small, red, and angry looking person jump out in front of his bike. It giggled and cackled madly before it was cut off by the curt reply of the motorcycle’s front tire.

“HA! SILLY MORTALS! NOW IT IS I WHO HAVE AMBUSHED YOU-”

**K-THUNK.**

“Jesus, what the fuck was that?” Rocket stammered out, peeling out and coming to a stop at the side of the road.

“Did you just hit someone?!” Booker shouted as he looked back down the dirt path.

The Biker glanced behind him, his eyes falling upon the splayed out crimson corpse on the road. “Yeah, I just killed something.”

“Holy shit!”

“Booker, go check it out. I'll keep this baby purring in case it's still alive.” Rocket mumbled, raising a shaking finger towards the body. “Ain't this the bad start to every horror movie ever?”

“No! Just turn around and drive by it…” He peered at the still form on the road. “What even is it? It’s tiny and red, and I think it was laughing or something when you hit it.” He hoped that it wasn’t an imp and that his earlier suspicion about where they were was wrong.

“I see someone doesn't like to ‘pull their own weight’ around here!” Came the retort, the Biker slowly veering around and slowly drifting towards the little dead thing.

It was an imp alright. Complete with pointy chin, loincloth, and wooden sandals; One of which was off, you know, like bestgore. The most notable thing, however, was its thirteen inch demon dick, now flattened against its stomach, clearly run over.

Booker stared at the body of the imp in silence for a few moments before speaking. “That’s a fucking imp… and you ran over him.” He quickly looked away in disgust from the mangled body.

“Fucking sick, bro.” Rocket placed a hand over his mouth.


	2. Chapter 2

Juyo glared down at the puddle of piss that was slowly drying up in the dirt before him.  
  
“Okay, look,” he started, trying his damndest to sound intimidating to his own urine. “We can do great things together, you and I, but you need to help me out here. I see potential in you to be a stick of murder instead of a stain on the ground. So what do you say? You gonna get bent, or what?”  
  
After giving a pep talk to pee, Juyo lifted his hand over the puddle and oh so gently pulled it up, pressing his thumb and index finger together as he did. He took slow, measured breaths, ignoring the way the piss was starting to make a god awful stank in the heat, and prayed that he was doing something right…  
  
The puddle shimmered, and at the center, a slowly rising pillar came upward.  
  
“Fuck yeah!” Juyo cheered, completely losing concentration and dropping the piss in the process. “Wait, fuck, no!”  
  
***  
  
Nilas coughed, arms pinwheeling wildly as he tried to clear out the red dust cloud surrounding him. He fought off another sneeze, lest he just make it worse. It was in his hair, clothes, mouth and eyes. He was starting to think trying to practice Airbending in a desert might not be the smartest idea.  
  
He’d been trying to follow Juyo’s advice, but to be honest, he had no fucking clue what it meant. Standing on one foot? No, he remembered enough of the show to know that was stupid.  
  
Hey, wait. Toph would call Aang ‘Twinkle Toes’, right? So maybe it meant stepping lightly on your toes or something.  
  
Fuck it, it was worth a shot.  
  
He got into what would probably be called a mockery of a martial arts stance and started to try and move. Eyes closed, he tried to feel the air around him. There was something there, he was sure. Something that hadn’t been only hours previous. He reached out and punched.  
  
There was a puff of wind, but he couldn’t tell if it was him, or just a sudden gust. Frowning, he tried again. Same effect. And again. And again.  
  
Frustrated, Nilas kicked up a patch of dirt; Causing his loose shoe to fly off. “Oh for fuck's sake.”  
  
Hopping over, he picked up a shoe to put back on. Then he went back to trying.  
  
***  
  
“Okay,” Juyo breathed, shaky hands trembling in the air. “Okay, I got this.”  
  
Floating before him was a small globe of pee, dripping ever so slightly back to the ground. It’d taken him a couple more failed attempts, but he finally got it to work after correcting his stance a few times and calming himself down. Now for the next part…  
  
Juyo spread his arms further apart, his splayed hands making a tugging motion. Inwardly, he cheered when the globe actually stretched with his hands, eventually forming a rod of piss. After snickering for a moment, he slow clenched his hands into fists, praying that it would work. His heart leaped as he noticed frost barely start to form along the surface, but then it immediately broke when the piss just sort of fell to the ground, splashing everywhere and getting on his feet.  
  
“Welp,” Juyo said, resigned and wiping his hands for no reason. “At least I know I can actually bend it. Progress, I guess.”  
  
\----  
  
Rocket still remained by the imp’s side, poking the flattened corpse with a stick idly before turning to Booker. “Huh, so this is that fucked up little text adventure game, ain’t it?” He sighed, dropping the branch before dusting his hands off. “If that’s the case, then I suppose we should go tell the others, hm?”  
  
Booker was doing his best to look away from the imp’s corpse. “Yeah, unfortunately, that seems like it might be the case.” He scoffed. “If we run into a goblin on the way back that would only confirm it even more.”  
  
“Camp, camp, camp, camp.” Rocket mumbled to himself, walking towards his bike and getting on it. “Campy, camp, campity camp camp.”  
  
Booker got onto the back of the bike. “You don’t need to keep chanting it over and over again.”  
  
“Just making sure.” He replied, riding away.  
  
***  
  
Nilas waved his hands rapidly back and forth, fingers spread wide. He probably looked like a complete idiot, but he had a plan. The problem was, he really had no clue what controlling air was even supposed to feel like. So he was hoping that the feeling of the air rushing through his fingers would maybe trigger something?  
  
It was about as good an idea as any really.  
  
There was definitely something there. Something to the way the wind moved around his limbs that he was _sure_ hadn’t been a thing before. Like an extra sense.  
  
As he brought his arm around for another swing, Nilas closed his fingers and cupped his hand. Then, focusing on the feeling, he swung.  
  
A wave of strangely visible air came into being in his hand, as he felt it gather and spin. At the arc of the swing he let it go, and the wave left his hand at speed. He could feel it as it shot across a short distance quickly, then dissipated. He stared dumbly at where it had been for a moment, before throwing his arms up. “Oh yeah! Airbending, bitches!”  
  
“Nice, bro!” Juyo cheered from the other side of camp.  
  
[Comin' Home Now!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDeThz30JtQ)  
  
The distant blaring of a radio came echoing down the crimson dunes of the camp, a motorcycle closing the distance and with it, the volume of the noise. “Yeah, bitch! We killed some shit and found a way outta here!”  
  
The Biker was easily going over 90 miles an hour, banging his head vigorously through the air as he hollered and hooted.  
  
“Come on, have some respect for the dead!” Booker shouted, then paused and muttered to himself. “Well, actually, it was an imp, so… uh, never mind.”  
  
“Yeah, whatever!” Rocket shouted back, bringing his bike to a stop near the two individuals that had decided to remain. “I’m back, bitches.”  
  
“Hey girl,” Juyo greeted, leaning forward to look at the blood splatters on the bike. “Would it be naive of me to assume that whatever you turned into roadkill was just a possum?”  
  
“Booker knows more about it than I do. Was an imp or something, I think.” He replied, shaking his head. “We’re in a place that’s probably more familiar to us than we’d like.”  
  
“Definitely an imp.” He spoke up. “And I’m fairly certain that we are unfortunately in Corruption of Champions… I mean,” he shrugged, “how many other settings have three-foot-tall red men with foot long cocks running around in them?  
  
“Great.” Nilas sighed, walking over. “Which means I suppose we have good news and bad news. Good news is that we have some idea of where we are and what we face. Bad news is, well, everything else really. Dying world, corruption, some faceless Big Bad in charge of it all. At least we have magic and shit, I suppose. Guess whoever put us here wanted to give us a fighting chance.”  
  
“Dicks a third their size?” Juyo scoffed, baffled. “Wouldn’t they die the second they got a boner? … Actually, if they’re demons, it’s- whatever. I’ll just assume basic biology and physics don’t apply here.”  
  
“Yeah, it’s best not to question these things.” Booker replied. “It’s… that type of world.”  
  
“If the imp is any indication, I’m going to assume this was some hardcore freaky-deeky fetish smut game?” Juyo guessed.  
  
“One of the freakiest.” Nilas confirmed.  
  
Booker nodded in agreement. “Yeah, definitely, not the type of place you want to find yourself in, period.”  
  
“Well, it does have some ok stuff. Just, a lot that isn’t, as well.” Nilas furrowed his brows.  
  
“Great,” Juyo drawled. “Guess I’m grinding the shit out of my Waterbending then.”  
  
“That would probably be a very good idea.” Booker nodded in agreement, again. “It’s probably going to be very useful in the coming days, seeing as we have jack fucking shit in terms of supplies. I’ve got the clothes on my back, some ID, a useless cellphone, and that’s about it. Rocket’s got that water bottle, and some actual training, so here’s hoping he can help keep us from dying from mundane shit.”  
  
“Yeah, no pressure or anything,” Juyo offered, smacking Rocket on the back. “I promise to be semi-competent in basic survival, though I know jack dick about this setting so that probably means nothing.”  
  
“First thing to know is, there’s a shit ton of fruits and other food that will transform your body. As in, eat this and gain that, like something called a canine pepper gives you dog body parts the more you eat of it… And eventually if you eat too much you will turn into a normal dog. So uh… finding food that doesn’t do that is going to be a major issue.” Booker helpfully supplied.  
  
“Then there's the fact that there’s demons and food items that slowly corrupt you, but that should be easy to avoid, since in the game you usually found that stuff after defeating said demons and looting…” He continued, face scrunching up in thought as he struggled to remember more. “Oh and there’s a massive lake in the setting, so large the shore is beyond the horizon, and it’s being constantly polluted by having corrupted bodily fluids dumped into it night and day. As in, literal gallons of cum and breast milk dumped into it, kind of like raw sewage.”  
  
“Yeah, that’s the factory I was talking about earlier,” Nilas directed at Juyo. “Also, I remember there being a sweet sword around there somewhere as well. Might be something to look for.”  
  
“So the factory’s gotta go,” Juyo decided, nodding to himself. “And thanks for the tips about the food. Is there any way to identify what may or may not change you just by looking at it?”  
  
“Hmm… in the game it gave an item description, but obviously we don’t have something that useful. Thankfully I remember a fair bit of the various items, and some of them are very obvious.” He easily switched into lecture mood, recalling all that he remembered from the game. “There’s fruit with whiskers on it that gives you cat body parts, the canine pepper I mentioned and it looks like a, well, a dogs dick with a knot at the base near the stem. There’s other stuff that’s found in jars or vials, sometimes with labels, but don’t go drinking any strange brown-ish or milky liquids to be on the safe side-”  
  
“Oh my god, shut the fuck up.” Rocket groaned, clutching his head. “How detailed and expansive is your knowledge on an obscure porn setting from the real world? Did you learn all of this for shits and giggles?” He turned to Juyo, pointing at him. “I’ll keep it simple. Don’t eat strange looking shit, kill everything that moves, and don’t touch anything if you aren’t sure what it is. Oh, and run if you feel like you’re about to get seriously fucked.”  
  
Booker glared at Rocket.  
  
“Kill everything that moves?” Nilas interjected, raising his hands sarcastically. “Well, no need to worry guys. Looks like we have one of the Emperor’s soldiers here. We’re going to be fine.”  
  
“Half the shit I’m hearing about this place makes me want to purge it all with holy fire,” Juyo spoke up. “Look… I know we need to focus on survival first and foremost, but I’m gonna make a guess here and assume we weren’t tossed in this shit hole for no reason. Not to mention we all have super powers all of a sudden. Point is, I think we’re here for a reason. Not trying to say it’s fate or prophecy or some shit, but that’s the vibe I’m getting.”  
  
  
“Or,” Nilas spoke up, “We’re the equivalent of when you drop a bug in an ant’s nest to see what happens. Amusement for something bigger.”  
  
“If I may.” Booker interjected. “First-” he pointed to Rocket, “-fuck you, I’ve got a mind for trivia and factoids. Second-” he looked between Juyo and Nilas, “-killing everything is going to end with us murdering _so many_ innocent people who are as fucked as we probably are. Not everything in this setting is some horrible rape monster… It’s just unfortunate that it’s in the process of being turned into an outright daemon world and is barely holding it off. Considering what might happen to us if we’re not careful, killing every freak might be a bit hypocritical. There’s plenty of ways to gain animal traits, few to lose them and gain human ones.”  
  
The Jesus look-alike nodded. “I agree with Booker. If what you are saying is even true-” He pointed at Juyo, “-then maybe we’re here to help the rest of these people survive. The game was about that, after all.”  
  
“Oh really?” Rocket all of a sudden chuckled, reaching into his back pocket. “Okay, booky boy. Here, while we analyzed that imp’s corpse, I found a few things on the little fucker.”  
  
From his person he withdrew both of his hands, opening up his palms and revealing three bright gems in his palms. In the other, he held a small parcel of what appeared to be a small sandwich made out of red bread, a sort of meat stuffed in the middle.  
  
“Would anyone like a bite?” He asked, grinning behind his helmet.  
  
Booker immediately jumped back and eyed the food warily. “Jesus Christ man! What are you trying to prove! Don’t eat anything you get off the mother fucking demons if you don’t want to get red skin, horns, oh and your soul eaten!”  
  
“Red skin and horns would be dope, not gonna lie,” Juyo admitted. “But I’m still not touching that shit.  
  
“Agreed.” Nilas added, nodding. “Also, I can’t remember what else Imp Food caused, so best not to eat it.”  
  
“It will also make you shorter.” Booker added as an afterthought.  
  
“It’s settled then.” Rocket nodded, tossing it to the fat fuck. “Sell it to Oswald.”  
  
Booker fumbled the sandwich but managed to catch it and held it out at arm's length from him. “Oh, so I guess you do know about the setting if you can remember the name of the pawn shop owner.”  
  
“Yeah man, even I don’t remember that.” Nilas shot Rocket an amused look. “Must have played it a bit.”  
  
“Bits and pieces.” The Biker shot back. “Calm your tits.”  
  
“If we’re done with all that garbage,” Juyo cut in. “We have no _actual_ food or camping supplies right now. I can sleep on the dirt if need be, but some food might lighten up the bitchiness going on around here.” He deliberately avoided clarifying. “So can we please actually do shit?”  
  
“Fine.” Rocket conceded. “But we ain’t gonna get anything done standing here. We gotta keep exploring.”  
  
“Yeah.” Booker nodded. “We also might want to get rid of this sandwich… in a few days, we’ll be desperate enough to eat it consequences be damned. It doesn't fully corrupt you in one bite, or even one sandwich, but it’s a road you don’t want to travel down without a way to turn back.”  
  
Nilas shrugged, not seeming too bothered so far. “Sure. So, did you guys find anything else? How well did the traveling work?”  
  
“Thought about a forest appeared in a forest.” Rocket shrugged. “Not that bad; takes a few times, though.”  
  
Booker momentarily thought about mentioning how it wasn’t that simple, but thought better of it. Instead, he shrugged as well. “Yeah, that’s about the half of it. It’s not _that_ simple, but it’s a good description as any. Just wander around and hope you stumble across something new.”  
  
“So, can I just do that now?” Juyo wondered. “That’s handy as hell.”  
  
“Yeah… Oh!” Booker spoke up as something occurred to him. “I almost forgot, in the center of said lake is the Goddess of this world trapped in a tree and slowly being corrupted by the horrible Demonic fluids polluting the lake. So, uh, yeah, need to deal with that factory and fast if we don’t want a Demonic Goddess on our hands. Also, in the game, the Demonic factory could be shut down via two methods; first was smashing the controls and machinery inside, while the other was destroying it completely… by overloading the pumps and causing a reservoir of fluids to spill into the lake. Which completely corrupts said Goddess. So…” He started to trail off. “If we live long enough to reach that factory, for the love of God, don’t blow it up.”  
  
“You just love to hear the sound of your own voice, don’t you, big boy?” Rocket chuckled, crossing his arms.  
  
“Well, yeah.” Booker smirked and sarcastically replied. “I thought that was obvious by now.”  
  
“Fucking Christ,” Juyo groaned, rubbing his temples. “I’m gonna go forage or explore the forest now. Someone come with me so I don’t get ganked by imps.”  
  
“Well, seeing as how I already have a kill under my belt, why not?” The Biker grumbled, walking to Mr. Four-Eyes. “Think I’ll save the gas for the bike this go around. If we do run into any trouble, I’ll light myself on fire and tackle it or something.”  
  
“If we’re walking then I’ll come along too, definitely a good idea to stay with a group in this place. And later we need to cover some more facts about this place, like don’t go into the plains or mountains because that’s where high-level enemies hung out.” Booker said, still in lecture mode ready to do more info dumps.  
  
“...You reckon that will actually be the case now since it’s not a game anymore?” Nilas spoke up. “Cause if it turns out they like to wander, or there ain’t a level cap, we’re fucked. Probably literally.”  
  
“Point being, we need to learn more than what Mr. Trivia here can provide,” Juyo said, walking toward the direction of the forest and giving Booker a nod. “No offense, man, but we can’t afford to blindly rely on game mechanics or lore if this place is an actual, living world. Find some towns, talk to the locals, that’s high priority, too.”  
  
Booker shrugged and followed along. “Eh, fair enough, don’t take what I say as word of God. Finding someone and pumping them for info is definitely on the priority list. Still… don’t eat anything if you aren’t willing to risk getting dog legs or a horse cock.”  
  
“Duly noted.”  
  
“You say something?” Rocket inquired, “Oh yeah, I forgot. It’s the fucking obvious, of course.”  
  
He turned to Juyo, beginning to stroll alongside him. “It’s easy. Just think of a forest and keep walking.”  
  
“So, we’re low-key teleporters now, fuckin’ sweet,” Juyo nodded.  
  
“More like this place is that twisted.” Booker offhandedly remarked.  
  
Right as he said that, the forest appeared before them.  
  
“Whoa, shit!” Nilas stopped dead and blinked, looking faintly ill. “That’s weird and terrifying.”  
  
Juyo stumbled, nearly tripping over his own feet at the sudden, drastic change of scenery. “Fuck, I’d thought it’d be more gradual than that!” He exclaimed. “This is gonna take some getting used to…”  
  
“It kind of was last time, we were riding and then noticed we were in a forest… I wonder if having more people focusing on the same thing makes it happen faster.” Booker wondered aloud.  
  
“S’pose that makes as much sense as anything else in this world.” Nilas grumbled, rubbing his temples.  
  
“The calm serenity of the forest has given me an increase to my overall intelligence.” Rocket added, nodding sagely.  
  
“Okay, chief,” Juyo snorted. “Wanna use that increased intelligence to help our survival here? Apparently, you’re good at that sort of thing.”  
  
“Well, for one, there’s some kind of forest tentacle-looking-thing shambling towards us.”  
  
Without even saying a word, Nilas turned on his heel and jogged quickly back in the other direction.  
  
Booker immediately followed suit. “Run!”  
  
“Jesus runs, I run!” Juyo hollered, sprinting after them. “Camp, camp, camp!”  
  
Rocket outstretched his arm towards the plant thing, his voice loud and commanding. “You shall not- oh, fuck this I’m out.” He turned on his heel, promptly skedaddling.  
  
The Plant Bush thing roared, it’s writhing tentacles shooting out from its bulbous mass towards the fleeing group. Desperately thinking fast, Juyo spotted a puddle of water in the path right in the tentacle monster’s way and made a hasty, jerky motion with his fingers. _Please, fucking freeze!_ He screamed internally. _Tui, La, whatever Gods exist here, please!_  
  
Whether it be adrenaline, genuine divine intervention, or just pure dumb luck (probably that), the water did his bidding, quickly becoming a sizable chunk of slick ice in the mud. Juyo was sorely tempted to see if it worked, but didn’t dare waste any more time. Even when he heard the monster screech and a loud wet _smack_ echo behind him.  
  
Booker pumped his legs even harder as he heard the shambling mass of tentacles screech.  
  
Nilas pumped his arms, moving as fast as he could. A quick glance behind showed that he had gotten a surprising amount of distance between himself and the rest of them, and was quickly leaving the rest in the dust. So focused on getting away, the Jesus man made one mistake. He didn’t think about the camp, only getting away. To everyone running behind him, it would look like he suddenly disappeared.  
  
_Fucking hell he just disappeared!_ Booker though in surprise. An instant later, the forest vanished and was replaced by the familiar, not-at-all-comforting hellish landscape they’d called their Camp.  
  
That time, Juyo tripped on a rock that hadn’t been there a second ago and fell face-first into the red dirt. He slid on the ground for a few moments before going completely still. “I fucking hate this planet,” he whined into the ground, red dust puffing up into the air from his breath. “Fucking bullshit rape plants and bullshit physics. I just want to not be raped, is that too much to ask?”  
  
“Holy shit.” Booker gasped out between panting for breath. “That… that was fucking insane. We- we were in a forest and then it just… _blurred_ like a fucking dream back here.”  
  
Rocket came walking soon after. “I went really fast and ran super hard.” He shook his head. “But enough with the joking around. What the fuck was that?”  
  
“I thought you were supposed to be our encyclo-” Juyo started to say, before cutting himself off. “Wait, that might be hypocritical considering what I said earlier. _Anyway.”_ He slowly sat up, dusting himself and wincing as he moved. “We survived. Awesome. But we’re still foodless. Not awesome.”  
  
“Why are you looking at me?! That’s a fucking tentacle plant monster!” Booker shouted back at them, still catching his breath. “Didn’t I mention it?! The forest is filled with corrupted patches of land, trees with breasts on them and vines that look like cocks. That _thing_ hunts down humans, or anyone really, and sucks them dry while injecting them with God only knows what.”  
  
“So it’s Horrible Thing Number Five Hundred Twenty-Six in this world, got it,” Juyo said, spitting out some dirt before standing back up. He adjusted his crooked glasses and winced at the pain in his knees, but otherwise held back on complaining further. Frowning, he looked around. “Uh, hold on. Where’s Nilas?”  
  
“He kind of disappeared.” Booker said, looking around their ‘camp’ for any signs of the Aussie. “I thought he ended up here. It was like… in a dream, one second there and then he wasn’t.”  
  
\----  
  
The first sign that something was wrong, was when the landscape behind him seemed to shudder and twist. When it cleared, Nilas could no longer see the others. Then, the humidity and scent of water hit him and he turned.

**You have discovered the Lake!**

Nilas froze, his jaw dropping. He stood on the shore of what he assumed was a lake. If it was, it was the largest one he had ever seen, the shore on the other side not even visible. The water was still and a deep blue, like crystal. The ground was green and grassy, with trees dotting the area, and it was surprisingly tranquil.

So, Nilas broke it. “[Fuck me…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tdu4uKSZ3M&feature=youtu.be&t=41s)”


	3. Chapter 3

Nilas leaned back against a tree and sighed. His head fell back to rest against the wood, and he closed his eyes as he enjoyed the cool breeze coming off the lake. He hadn’t even noticed how hot and stagnant the wasteland had been, and he really wasn’t up to going back to it yet. Thanks to the way travel worked, he’d have no issue finding his way back, and the others would be fine, right?  
  
That was another thing. The other three random guys that had shown up with him, all with powers as well. It was crazy, and was definitely not an accident. He just really had no clue what to do or even where to start, so he just laid back and tried not to think too much.  
  
Of course, that had the exact opposite effect. He thought of home, of if they would find a way back, about how fucking cool having powers was. Finally, he got sick of it and stood up. He might as well explore the area since he was here. He could remember a few things, like the dog-woman’s farm and the sword, and he was sure there weren’t any real threats here, right? Right. It was one of the first and safest places in the game.  
  
Nilas chose a random direction to follow and started walking. Thankfully, nothing seemed to shift like it did out in the wasteland, so he wouldn’t get sick from watching things keep popping in and out of sight. It was really a beautiful place. The water was crystal clear, the grass was almost stupidly green, and he knew he’d be spending a lot of time in the area. Just the atmosphere felt invigorating, and he found himself involuntarily picking up his pace.  
  
Eventually, walking in the slightly too large shoes got annoying, and the young man took them off and carried them instead; Walking barefoot across the sand at the edge of the water. Like this, he could almost forget just where he was or what had happened. Thrust into an alien world with three strangers, and one full of some fucked up things. It had its positives, he would admit for sure, but still.  
  
As he walked, something in the water beside him caught his eye. Stopping, he cautiously turned to look. There, off the shore a little bit where the water grew murky, a pale red light pulsed. Nilas stared at it for a moment, confused, then took a hesitant step into the water, craning his neck to try and see what it was.   
  
“What the fuck…” There, just below the surface, what looked a lot like a human heart floated; The deep red glow surrounding it, beating in time with it. The water around it shuddered, and the man went to jump back. He almost tripped when the water refused to give like it should have. And another panicked tug pulled himself free, where he staggered back onto the sand. When he looked back up, the surface of the water had risen upwards, slowly solidifying into the shape of a gooey-looking woman; Every part of her the same shade of blue.  
  
Nilas staggered back, eyes bulging at the sight. Not even noticing her state of undress or generous figure, his mind still stuck on the fact that something like this _actually existed in front of him_.  
  
The goo-girl tilted her head as she watched him, lips pouted and a curious expression spread across her face. Then she spread her dripping arms and smiled at him, as if welcoming him into her embrace. He shook his head and started to backpedal, well aware of what slimes did in this world. Reacting to his movements, the goo-girl surged forward after him.  
  
As he turned to flee, Nilas was extremely thankful he had taken his shoes off. Digging his toes into the sand, the Australian sprinted away from the slime; Not daring to even look back. A drop of something wet and slick brushed his heel for a moment, making him yelp and try to pick up his pace.   
  
Off the shifting sand, and onto more stable grass, he chanced a look back. The goo-girl had fallen behind, but was still coming, a determined pout set on her blue-toned face as she leaned forward and tried to surge towards him faster. When she spotted him looking, she lifted her arms again. He kept going.  
  
By the time he noticed the goo-girl had broken off pursuit, Nilas felt like he was going to die. He slowed to a halt, then flopped down onto the cool grass; Panting. Fuck he had no stamina anymore. Rolling over onto his back and lifting his hands over his head, the young man just laid there for a bit; Catching his breath. So, it turned out the lake wasn’t as safe as he remembered. Good to know. He sighed. Why couldn’t he have run into some cute friendly animal girl instead?   
  
He wasn’t sure how long he laid there, working to get his breath back and calm his heart. But eventually he sat up. If he wanted to survive this, he’d need other people to do so. May as well find his way back to the others. A group of benders weren’t anything to laugh at.  
  
And holy shit, he was an airbender. He just remembered that. He giggled to himself, heading back towards what he hoped would be the others.  
  
\--------------------------  
  
“‘Like a dream’,” Juyo echoed, shaking his head. “More like a nightmare-”  
  
“You don’t know the half of it.” Booker interjected between heavy breaths.  
  
“... I’ve got a good imagination,” Juyo replied, annoyance slipping into his tone. “Anyway. I think we can say he avoided the rape plant, considering how fast he was going. You guys have any ideas on how we can find our airbender? Or do we just wait for him to teleport back?”  
  
“He could be literally anywhere in this god forsaken world right now. I know that isn’t something anyone wants to hear, but if he wasn’t thinking of camp and ran without any direction he could be anywhere.” Booker informed him. “I think we might be able to find him if we think of him, since in the game characters could randomly find your character no matter where you are. It’s not much, but it’s that or sit here and wait for him to show back up.”  
  
Rocket sighed, crossing his arms as he quietly heaved. “Well, then.” He breathed, his voice muffled from behind his helmet. “I think he’ll be alright. I mean, all he has to do is think about this spot and walk forward for a time, right? Until then, I say we stay clear of the forest for now.”   
  
“Fair enough,” Juyo nodded, wiping off his pants some more. “I’m up for avoiding that nasty shit some more. But where are we gonna get food and water?” He made a show of looking around the barren red desert that surrounded them. “I don’t see where we can get that around here.”  
  
“Yeah, this is pretty much a wasteland.” Booker agreed with him. “Rocket, do you know anything about treating or purifying water gotten from wild sources? You are the one with survival training.”  
  
The Biker paused, kneeling down in an effort to steady his breath. “First things first, we gotta find water. Once we do that, it’s a matter of boiling and filtration.”   
  
“Alright, and how would we filter it?” Booker asked.  
  
“Hang on,” Juyo cut in. “We should worry about finding water before we learn how to filter it. I’m… _pretty sure_ I can sense water, since I knew where Rocket’s water bottle was. If I can try to clear my mind, I think I can get a vague idea of which direction the nearest water source would be. Then we go from there.”  
  
“Well, if you’re sure.” Rocket replied. “We’ll wait on you.”   
  
“Cool,” Juyo breathed, stepping over to a particularly flat patch of dirt. “Guess this is as good a spot as any,” he decided before sitting down cross-legged and pressing his palms together. “I’m only going off my knowledge from Avatar right now, so if you guys want to search on your own, then go for it. I just need some quiet to focus.”  
  
“Alright, sounds like a plan.” Booker glanced between Juyo and Rocket. “Think now’s a good a time as any to practice with Earthbending? I haven’t had the chance yet, and it would be pretty useful if I could make a shelter.”  
  
“Juyo.” Rocket suddenly called out, raising his head to the sky.   
  
“Hm?” Juyo hummed.  
  
“I never watched Avatar, but I remembered seeing a scene from long back. If I’m recalling correctly, isn’t a Waterbender able to get water from the clouds?” He continued, pointing up. “If so, we got plenty of ‘em.”   
  
“You’re not wrong,” Juyo noted, following Rocket’s finger upward. “Problem is, those are too high up for me right now. If I could only get a little closer, it’s absolutely possible. If either Nilas or William could get me up there somehow.”  
  
Booker followed their gazes upwards. “Don’t ask me to make a few hundred foot tall stone tower, at least not now.”  
  
The Biker shook his head, rummaging through his pockets and fishing out a granola bar. “This is puzzling. Let me think about this.” He begins to idly unwrap it.  
  
“Do what you gotta do,” Juyo said. “Also, since you haven’t seen the show, I can teach you some stuff about Firebending if you’d like. Hopefully we can get Lightning Bending for you as well.”  
  
“How to attack and change everything?” Rocket joked.   
  
Juyo snorted. “Yeah, like changing the demons into charred corpses, ideally. But seriously, if you have any questions, just ask. I like to think I have as much knowledge of Avatar as Booker does of a porno.” Juyo blinked, frowning. “Wait. Is that a fucking granola bar?”  
  
“Uh,” Rocket trailed off, suddenly placing his arms behind his back. “Maybe? You wouldn’t like it; Nature Valley peanut butter ones are gross.”   
  
“It’s better than fuckin’ _hell dust_ ,” Juyo growled. “You been holding out on us?”  
  
“Dude, I was on the _interstate_ before I wound up here. You think I wouldn’t put road munchies in my saddle bags?”   
  
“Okay, okay,” Juyo sighed, rubbing his temples. “This meditation is going great so far. How much do you have? We need to ration.”  
  
“Let’s see…” Rocket began to list off the things he had purchased, extending each finger as he did so. “There was a couple Lays bags of chips, some powerade mix, beef jerky, some candy…” He paused. “And I think I may have left an MRE in there from what I had to go out in the woods for land nav.”   
  
“Oh shit, you have an MRE?” Juyo asked, impressed. “Nice.”  
  
The Biker shrugged. “I guess forgetfulness pays off.”   
  
“That it does, when you get ripped from your reality into some shitty hentai game, I guess,” Juyo said. “But it’s actually really good that we have that. That stuff should all be last resort, until we know for sure we can’t find anything immediately available. But anyway! Meditating now.”  
  
“Have fun with that.” Rocket grumbled, sauntering off.   
  
Juyo closed his eyes and took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down using the yoga techniques he’d been trying to pick up on for the past few weeks. It wasn’t easy, considering that he was now in relative solitude and had time to actually reflect on the abysmal situation they found themselves in.  
  
 _Survive first, angst later_ , Juyo thought, repeating the words in his head like a mantra. Over and over, until he they were all he could think of. Eventually, even they lost all meaning, and his mind became an empty space. There was a distant sense of something pushing and pulling around, above, and beneath him. Above and around, it was… tenuous, at best. There was a current to it, but there was an amorphous, free quality to the space around him.  
  
The moisture in the air. That had to be it. Juyo had to force himself from cheering at the achievement. Somehow, he knew he couldn’t draw on the moisture yet. It was too much like air for him to influence. There was no direction, no form to it. Not at all like what he sensed below.  
  
Underground, there were definitely rivers flowing beneath them. Too far down for him to pull without the aid of someone who could crack the earth open, but certainly there. And if there was water there, then maybe…  
  
Daring to hope, he followed the currents as they pushed southward, further and further until he was at his limits. He couldn’t see anything, but he could feel water as if it were all around him now, pulling him along and rushing to its destination. There were moments he felt like he should be drowning, but a couple seconds of manual breathing kept those fears at bay.  
  
Then, finally, he opened his eyes.  
  
“Found a small stream maybe a half hour’s walk that way,” Juyo declared, pointing south. “It’s barely big enough for us to scoop with our hands, but it’s there.”  
  
“Well it’s better than nothing and if we’re lucky it won’t be corrupted.” Booker remarked. “Why don’t you two go check it out, while I wait around here for Nilas. Don’t want him to come back here, not see us, and then wander back off on a wild goose chase.”  
  
Rocket heard Booker loud and clear, yet it was apparent that Juyo either didn’t take notice or simply had no fucks to give.   
  
“Juyo.” The Biker said once again, tapping the meditating four-eyes with his foot. “We’re off to look for that stream that fatass said was nearby.” He paused, raising up his canteen and shaking it. “I’m gonna refill this bad boy and try to boil it. You always want to carry metal containers, reasons being you might end up in a scenario like the one we’re in now. Let’s go, or do you want to get in touch with your inner piss stream?”   
  
“Comin’, comin’,” Juyo replied, standing back up. “I probably need to come anyway so I can keep us on the right path.”  
  
“Just go with your instincts, or something.” Rocket said, smirking behind his helmet. “And if we run into any imps, just uh, use your fists.”   
  
“I’ll just kick ‘em in the dick, since they’re such big targets anyway,” Juyo shrugged.   
  
“What are you, fuckin’ gay?” The Motorcyclist admonished, before shaking his head. “Aight, that’ll work too. Let’s go.”   
  
***  
  
With the two of them gone it was just Booker and a vast expansive wasteland, with them disappearing as they walked off into the distance. It seemed the teleportation quick travel quirk didn’t kick in when exploring in general or maybe while in the same “area.”  
  
He shook his head at the pointless speculation. The point was that they didn’t outright disappear in front of his eyes, and the eldritch nature of the realm they found themselves in was both insanely fascinating and downright insane. He wondered if it was always like that or if the demons played a role in warping reality.   
  
He vaguely remember bits and pieces of the show, how Earthbenders stance involved their feet firmly planted on the ground and that their movements were very direct. They stomped the ground to pull up a rock and then punched the air send it flying. It stood in sharp contrast to the more flowing movements of air or water bending.   
  
Sighing, he ignored any feelings of self-consciousness he had, the lack of audience helped in that regard, and got into half-crouching, squatting stance. Dust was already starting to swirl and gather around his entire body, instead of just his hands, a small column of sand building up around his legs.   
  
He idly wondered that if whatever dumped them here had given him some instinctive knowledge of Sandbending. It was a specialized subset of Earthbending with more fluid movements.   
  
Deciding to test that later, he breathed in and stomped on the ground while trying to will the ground to rise up. The cracked rocky ground in front of him shifted a bit, and the top layer was pried off. It was a start, so he tried it again, resulting in a small, thin chunk of rock to be violently torn up a few feet into the air.   
  
A grin broke out across his face, and he stood up to pump his arms into the air. “Yes! I moved shit with my fucking mind!” He then glanced at the mini-sandstorm swirling around the lower half of his body. “On purpose this time!”  
  
Quickly getting back into the stance, he kept stomping his foot, occasionally throwing in some hand gestures, to start getting a feel for basic Earthbending. He was fairly certain beginners didn’t instinctively create sandstorms, but he wasn’t going to complain.   
  
Most of the time he merely deformed the ground, or cause some debris to go flying off. Though, he stumbled across the right gestures needed to make a stone pillar rise out of the ground. It was… meager, to say the least, like a child’s sandcastle left out to dry in the sun hardened into rock. He did it a few more times, and eventually had a small gathering of horribly misshapen pillars that barely came up to his waist.   
  
“I wonder what would happen if I kicked it….” Booker thought out loud, then choose at the nearest pillar. “Looks like you’re the lucky sacrifice.” He moved over to it, backing up a bit so he wasn’t too close to it, and then kicked it with the bottom of his foot while resisting the urge to shout “This is Sparta.”  
  
The part of the stone where his foot hit went flying forwards, causing him to stumble, and embedded itself into the ground a few yards away. He spent the next few minutes actively destroying the poor, innocent deformed pillars that he had created moments before. All the while Booker felt a rush as he moved matter with his mind, even levitating a handful of pebbles and moving them around in the air before losing control…   
  
Booker may or may not have been crackling like a madman as he turned the edge of the camp into a ruined mess, a warped ring of destruction formed around him. It had finally set into his mind what power he had, the things he could do. Once the high wore off he was breathing heavily and felt exhausted, but in a good way. The dust and sand having finally settled down around him. With a stomp and thrust of his arms, a squat stone seat had been formed and he promptly sat down on it.   
  
Sweat was dripping down his face as he sat there, still giggling like an idiot.   
  
\----  
  
“Should be coming up on the stream soon here,” Juyo told Rocket. “Just around the riverbend~” he added in a sing-song voice.  
  
“Who sings that song?” Rocket asked, following along.   
  
“Me, right now,” Juyo answered without hesitation. “I’ve been asked that question a lot, which I’m sure surprises you.”  
  
“You think I had a sick burn coming outta the oven?” The Biker chuckled, partly due to his own pun.   
  
“Sorry, didn’t mean to rain on your parade,” Juyo snorted.  
  
“Ah, humans making puns! That’s enough outta you!” Cried a voice coming from just beyond a couple boulders in the middle of the wasteland, three imps suddenly jumping out and displaying their lengthy claws and pointy tails. “We’re gonna fuck you good!”   
  
Juyo nearly jumped where he stood, cursing at the sudden appearance of three horny midgets. “For fuck’s sake,” he groaned. “What, so puns are bad but rape is okay?”  
  
“It’s not rape if we mind break you into enjoying it!”   
  
“Nope, definitely still rape,” Juyo denied, shaking his head. “Rape, rape, rape, just rape.”  
  
“Well, if you insist!” The three cried out in unison, beginning to charge.  
  
“Damn it, Juyo! Now we’re gonna get three holes filled with three BIG RED DEMON DICKS!” Rocket growled, shifting into a boxer's stance and facing the oncomers.   
  
“BIG RED DEMON DICKS, YOU SAY?!” Juyo hollered, moving into a kicker’s stance, his left foot forward and his right foot back. Blinking, he lowered his voice and leaned closer to Rocket. “Uh, how strong are these fucks?”  
  
“One versus one? A cake walk. Three of em’, not including the chemicals or potions they’ll probably have on them to throw at us? Not sure about that.” Rocket said, closing his eyes. “Just use the super power known as caution and common sense.”   
  
“Got it,” Juyo nodded, resuming his previous position. “I can probs Waterbend whatever shit they throw at us so long as there’s some water in it. At the very least I can make their aim go way off.”  
  
“Less talky, more dicky!” one of the imps hooted, evidently losing all pretense of patience and charging ahead of its fellows.   
  
When it got close, Rocket turned, sticking his leg out and causing the little mongrel to trip on the ground. A face full of red dirt, it fell to the ground, it’s voice muffled as it looked up. “That’s not fair-”  
  
A quick kick across the jaw promptly shut the twerp up, the Firebender’s boot cracking against its head with an audible smack.   
  
“I like to fight dirty.”  
  
“Rapists whining about fairness?” Juyo wondered, shaking his head. “Kay.” He closed his eyes briefly, extending his senses outward, searching for the nearby stream. It was actually really close, right behind where the imps had popped out. He could also feel a faint amount of water in bottles on one of the imps, though it felt… distorted. Shaky. Perfect. “Last chance for you dick-weasels to run away.”  
  
“Eh, who’re you callin’ dick-weasel, you dweeby looking runt!” One of them cried out, growling and rushing forward with his claws straight out. “Grr, I’ll gouge your eyes out!”   
  
“If that could hurt my feelings, I never would’ve survived being a nerd in middle school.” Juyo replied, balling his hands into fists and feeling his heart pound in his chest. He felt like he was burning just looking at the imps, something stirring an absolute hatred inside him.  
  
Probably because they were rape demons.  
  
The imp cackled as it drew close, and right when it was about to jump at him, Juyo roundhouse kicked the little fucker. He felt the impact roll up his leg, jolting the rest of his body with a dull pain and causing him to wince. He hadn’t attacked anything, even a punching bag, in a long time, and his body was unused to physical labor, which he sorely regretted now.  
  
At least the imp seemed to be in more pain than he was, if its cry was anything to go by. It fell to the ground on its side, hissing angrily as it glared at Juyo. “Just lie down and let us rape ya already!” it shrieked.  
  
Juyo stared down at the hateful thing before him, feeling something cold wash over him. He flexed his fingers once, then twice, and took a long, deep breath.  
  
“You’re never going to rape anyone ever again,” he told it.  
  
And then he calmly but fiercely stomped on its dick.  
  
“U-Uh, hey humans! I don’t want any trouble now!” The last imp stammered out, clearly unnerved at how quickly the two had beat the shit out of them. “S-Stay back!”   
  
Rocket turned to Juyo, his gaze hardening as he watched the man go to town on the recently defeated imp’s ding dong. Slowly did he turn, motioning to the last one and waving him off. “You better get going, lest I change my fuckin’ mind. Tell your friends about us.”   
  
The little creature nodded their little head vigorously at that, tossing the two adventurers a small bottle filled with some sort of diluted white fluid. “I-It’s all I have! Leave me alone! AHH!”   
  
As it’s back was turned, Rocket knelt down, unsheathing something from his boot before standing up. Heh, he had such a bad habit of lying.   
  
A quick flick of the wrist was all it took, and pretty soon the little monster found ten inches of solid steel deep in its back. It felt to the dirt wordlessly, dust kicking up near the fresh corpse and dissipating into the air.   
  
“Juyo…” He began, shaking his head. “I think you can stop now.”   
  
“Ah, yeah.” Juyo stopped, looking away from Rocket as if to hide his face. “Um… sorry about that. I never get like that, usually. Rape’s kind of a sore subject for me.”  
  
“There’s nothing to be sorry for.” Rocket replied, strolling up to the body. “Go investigate the stream. I’ll see if there’s anything useful on these guys.”   
  
“Yeah, yeah, sounds good,” Juyo said weakly, awkwardly clearing his throat and wiping his foot in the dirt. “Yeah, I’ll do that.” At that, he walked on ahead.  
  
Rocket pulled the knife from the third one’s back, wiping the blood off with its loincloth before picking up the potion. “Fat Fuck will know what this is.” He grumbled, placing it in the pocket of his jacket. What he did next was, admittedly, somewhat difficult.   
  
Checking up on the other two for a pulse, he slit their throats just to be sure. Five minutes had passed and now he was six gems richer. There’d be time to figure it out, at least while Juyo still messed with the newly found water supply.   
  
Speaking of, Juyo was indeed inspecting the small stream. It was barely as wide as his fist, and it stretched on for only a couple feet before it went back underground, but it was undoubtedly a source of water they could rely on. He could feel the slow but steady currents beneath, constantly providing the stream with water.   
  
“Not sure if it’s sanitary, though,” he mumbled to himself, stroking his bearded chin with one hand. With the other, he splayed it out and began to tug on the water. A tiny pillar of dirty liquid slowly rose straight upward until it poked his open palm. A soft smile crossed his face. “But hey, it’s a start. Hey, Rocket! Found the water!”  
  
The Biker came around the boulder, blood spattering the front of his leather jacket as he gazed at the newly found source of water. “Great job.” He said simply. “Why don’t we relocate the camp here?”   
  
“That’s makes all sorts of sense,” Juyo agreed, before tilting his head. “But just how common are they around here?”  
  
“Take a good look around, Juyo.” He gestured to the sky, sliding his knife back into his boot. Suddenly he wrapped an arm around the man’s shoulder, bringing him close before outstretching his arm in front of him. “Imps… Imps everywhere.”   
  
Juyo blanched, though not at the sudden familiarity. “Great,” he drawled. “Cleaning this Hellhole out is gonna take a long fuckin’ time.”  
  
“That it will…” Rocket nodded, raising a vial to the bearded man’s face. “Incubi draft?”   
  
“... Ya know, I’ll have to make a hard pass this time,” Juyo snorted, gently pushing the offered vial away. “Slaaneshi semen sounds fun and all, but drugs are bad, mmkay?”  
  
“No, you fucking idiot. Put it in your inventory.” The Biker shook his head. “I’ve already got my pockets filled with like, thirty gems and a half a ham sandwich.”   
  
“Hold up, gems?” Juyo said, snatching the vial as his old RPG instincts kicked in hard. “Where dey at?”  
  
Rocket promptly fumbled for something in his pockets, withdrawing a fistful of gems and dumping them onto Juyo’s awaiting palms. They were blue, and quite shiny.   
  
“Dank nugs,” Juyo murmured appreciatively, leaning in to give the gems a closer look. “Dang, so there’s legit loot in this world. Is inventory an actual thing or do we have to actually store shit?”  
  
“Well, taking inventory is just you looking at the ‘shit’ you stored, ain’t it?” The Biker replied, smirking behind his helmet as he turned away. “C’mon, let’s get the others.”   
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Juyo said, following after him as he stuffed his pockets with sweet, sweet loot.


	4. Chapter 4

Soon after the two came, they found Booker, still sitting on his stone stool. He looked up as he heard the two of them approach the camp. “Hey guys.”  
  
“Mission accomplished.” Rocket stated flatly, crossing his arms. He looked around. “Wait, what the fuck happened here?”  
  
“Earthbending practice,” Juyo stated, as if that answered everything.  
  
“Yeah,” Booker nodded and motioned to Juyo, “What he said. In a day or two I might even be able to make a lean-to.”  
  
“Or a treadmill.” Came the nasty quip.   
  
“You know being an asshole isn’t needed.” Booker shot back. “So get the fuck off my back.”  
  
“For fuck’s sake,” Juyo groaned. “Guys, we are in a _life or death scenario_ right the fuck now! We barely have enough water, we have no food, we’re missing a guy, and, oh yeah, we’re _stuck in a hellhole full of rape demons!_ So shut the _fuck_ up and save the bitchfests for after we have some goddamn security around here!” By the end of his rant, his face had gone red and he looked about ready to pop a blood vessel. Or five.  
  
Booker sighed and shook his head. “You think I don’t know that? I know damn well how utterly fucked we are unless we pull out some motherfucking miracles, so excuse me for getting a little bit annoyed when Rocket,” he shot a glare at the biker, “Has been making fat comments to me since we showed up.”  
  
“Alright, alright.” Rocket sighed, raising his arms of defensively. “I’ll admit I’m being a dick. I’m just fuckin’ stressed out, okay? Just a moment ago I was on the highway to visit some family, next thing I know I’m here with you guys and putting blood on my hands.” Another sigh. “Just tryin’ to get the anger out.”  
  
“Thank God,” Juyo breathed, raising a hand to his chest and forcing himself to calm down.  
  
Booker took a few deep breaths as well. “I get what you mean Rocket, but I just don’t like it being directed towards me. We’re all in this situation together.”   
  
“Right, right.” Rocket nodded. “Fine. I’ll find a different outlet.” Turning around, he pointed over his shoulder. “I suggest we relocate. Move closer to the source.”   
  
“Seconded,” Juyo said, thankful things had cooled down. “Also, Booker, we ran into three imps and… well, we killed them. Kind of easily, actually.”  
  
“Oh…” Booker responded as he processed what Juyo said.   
  
“Yeah…” Juyo blinked, mulling over his words. It still seemed a bit surreal, even relative to their current situation. He’d just killed something. And was glad to do so. Hurm. “Uh… oh, right! They had this on them!” Eager to not think too hard, he pulled out what Rocket had called ‘incubi draft’. “What is it, exactly?”  
  
Booker stared at the bottle in Juyo’s hand. “It’s distilled demon cum, drink it if you want a bigger cock and corruption. It can be purified by a rat alchemist, but it’s still cum.”  
  
“That’s… disappointing,” Juyo grumbled, disgust plain on his face. “And fucking gross. Is there no practical purpose for this beyond that?”  
  
“No, not really, it’s entire purpose is to give you a bigger cock.” Booker shrugged. “Honestly I think we should throw it away, maybe smash it from a safe distance away.”  
  
“Or save it and sell it.” The Biker added.   
  
“I’m gonna have to go with Booker’s suggestion,” Juyo decided, pocketing the vial and shaking his head. “If this shit spreads corruption, I’m not letting it spread anymore.”  
  
Rocket disliked that.   
  
“You fail to see the bigger picture then.”   
  
“Actually,” Booker spoke up, “I think we might have some use for it. If we run into that rat alchemist, we could pay him to purify it for us. I don’t think we would have any use for it after that, but in the game you had to use his services a few times before he joined you.” He held up a hand to forestall any comments. “And yes I know it’s not like the game, but still, the point is he’s useful and investing in him, if he’s around and alive, is a good idea.”  
  
“What he said.” Rocket said, pointing to Booker. “Gotta think the long term.”  
  
“Hrm,” Juyo grumbled, holding the vial up to his face and swishing the white liquid within. Finally, with a disgusted look, he said, “Alright. If it helps the long term, then I’ll roll with it.”  
  
“Trust me, it’s the only reason I’d consider keeping it around.” Booker grumbled in agreement.   
  
“Come to think of it, I think we’re all in a consensus not to eat anything that looks shady, right?” Rocket asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.   
  
“Good rule of thumb no matter where you are,” Juyo said, nodding as he remember a particularly freaky dish he had once upon a time in Bangkok. “But yeah, no demon semen or whatever else you guys mentioned for me.”  
  
“Oh thank fuck,” A voice said from off to the side, as Nilas suddenly appeared mid-step, looking very relieved. “That actually worked, somehow. Didn’t know if I’d actually find my way back here.”  
  
Booker perked up and greeted Nilas with a tired smile. “Nilas! You return to us unharmed and without any animal parts! Truly you are blessed!”  
  
“Oh, hey dude!” Juyo greeted, smiling in relief as he walked over to Nilas. As he did so, he gently pocketed the Incubi Draft. “The hell you been? I was starting to get worried.”  
  
Nilas groaned and sat down in the dirt, leaning back on his hands. “I stumbled across the lake, and thought I’d take a walk around and take a break from this post-apocalyptic shit.” He waved at hand at the general area. “Figured it was safe, from what I remembered of it. Turns out I forgot about the slimes. She was persistent as fuck.”   
  
“Damn, someone’s got the fuckin’ luck of the Irish.” Rocket nodded, looking at Nilas as he jammed his hands into his pockets. “Or however the saying goes. See anything of note? Raped anything? Got raped?”   
  
Nilas frowned at the biker, brows furrowed. “Found the lake, so that’s something of note. But yeah, no to either of those last ones. And I don’t fucking plan on it either.” The hint of venom in the man’s voice at the idea was pretty obvious.  
  
“Plans change.” Rocket replied, brushing him off. “But I get it- some things you can control. Let this be one of ‘em.”   
  
“Speaking of plans and control,” Juyo stepped in. “We managed to find a source of water a little ways down yonder.” He pointed the way he and Rocket had come from. “We should set up camp there and get to filtering it so we have something to drink that isn’t demon cum.”  
  
Nilas grimaced. “Now that was a mental image I didn’t need.”  
  
“Yeah, it’s actually a good thing you showed up when you did, otherwise we might have left and set up camp there without you knowing.” Booker chimed in. “Though I probably would have stuck around and waited for you.”  
  
The man sitting on the ground nodded thankfully at Booker. “‘Appreciate it.”  
  
“No problem.” He nodded back.  
  
“Getting thirsty,” Juyo groused. “Legggoooo.”  
  
Groaning, Nilas pushed himself to his feet; Ignoring his legs screaming at him. He glanced around. “So, what did you guys get up to? Last I saw, we were running from that tentacle monster.”  
  
“I practiced earthbending while they went looking for that stream.” Booker motioned to the destroyed rock piles around them. “It went well.”  
  
Rocket sniffed, letting a sigh escape as he shrugged. “Sat around, went with four-eyes over here and located some water. Suggest we move there ASAP.”   
  
“Walk and talk,” Juyo said. “Also, Rocket and I ran into three imps. And…” His expression fell. “Well, we killed them. Since they were trying to rape us.”  
  
Booker got up from his stone seat and grimaced. “Ah, that must have been an _unpleasant_ experience, though it was probably necessary. If they lived they’d tell other imps or even more powerful demons about you. It goes without saying we don’t want that.”  
  
Nilas stood with hands in pockets, looking unsure of how to feel. Finally, he nodded slightly. “Yeah, that’s, uh… I don’t blame you if it came to that. Sorry to hear it.”  
  
“I appreciate it,” Juyo replied, giving the both of them grateful looks. “It was… I dunno. When they started saying that shit, something came over me.”  
  
“A shortened version, but correct nonetheless.” Rocket nodded. “Regardless,” He began, standing up. “We’ve sat around too long. We better get moving to that new location. This guy over here can describe it to ya’ll. If one of you wants on, then let’s go.”  
  
***  
  
“Alright, as you can all tell, this is a stream.” Rocket began, hunching over the little crack in the dirt where a steady flow of water leaked through to the surface. “Since it comes from an underground source, it’s effectively a spring, fresh and filtered through all those layers of rock. However, seeing as this place is corrupted as all hell, I’m not sure if it’d be all that safe. Would boiling even work? Don’t ask me, basic didn’t cover this freaky deaky voodoo shit.”   
  
Booker grimaced. “Well let’s hope it’s not then. We don’t really have the means of measuring that type of thing, but since it’s underwater and pretty small I don’t think any demons would go out of there way to corrupt it… hopefully.” Booker added as an afterthought as he frowned. “Nilas, how did the lake look to you? Was there anything strange looking about the water?”  
  
Nilas shrugged. “Not really. I mean, it was a pretty nice-looking lake all things considered. Water was pretty blue and clear. Only weird thing turned out to be the slime.”  
  
The tallest member of the group sighed. “And that’s the insidiousness of it. It looks clean but it’s filled with corrupt _fluids_.” Booker stated.   
  
“So a large body of water is filled with jizz?” Juyo wondered, before nodding. “Neat. So, I’m thinking we should just filter this stream Rocket’s way in case of whatever. Sadly I don’t think we have much of a choice either way. I’ll bend some up, what next?”  
  
“...Would boiling it even remove jizz and shit?” Nilas made a face at the thought.  
  
“No idea, but that’s why we avoid drinking from the lake.” Booker remarked.   
  
“Give me a second.” Rocket said, his voice flat. Standing from his previously crouched position, he turned, walking towards his bike in a wide gait before coming to a halt at the saddlebags. “Unlike everyone else here, I suppose that I had the fortune of my motorcycle coming along for the ride.”  
  
He reached towards the zipper, pulling it apart and glancing over his shoulder. “Went on an extended road trip, actually. Was gonna go camping and spent a couple days at my grand folk’s.” From the confines of the compartment, a shiny little metal pot, roughly the size of plastic baking bowl, clattered to the ground in front of the stream. “Dump it.”   
  
“Haiiii,” Juyo replied in an oddly high pitched voice, daintily hovering his hand over the tiny stream. His eyes narrowed as he focused on the water below, then, ever so gently, pulled up with his fingers falling below his palm. A pillar of water, barely wider than a couple centimeters, rose with him and floated until it reached the halfway point in the air. “Foo~” he breathed for the first time since he started bending. “I cannot fucking wait until this gets easier. Someone put the bowl underneath it, please.”  
  
Booker stared at Juyo lifting the water out from the stream. “That’s impressive and all, but why didn’t you just use the bowl to scoop it up?”   
  
“Because I need to practice,” Juyo replied heatedly. “Can’t exactly fight rape demons if I can’t lift an itty bitty stream. Now _please._ ”  
  
Shifting a bit closer from where he had sprawled out, Nilas grabbed the pot and stretched to hold it under the water. Another surreal experience to add to the list. “Got it.”  
  
“Aaand plop.” At that, Juyo dropped the water into the bowl and wiped his brow. “Shit, I need to get good at that. What next?”  
  
“Give it to me.” The Biker ordered.  
  
“A’ight.” Nilas slowly brought the pot around to not splash any water, holding it out to Rocket.  
  
Promptly taking the container, Rocket sighed, letting his grip tighten around the edges. Slowly, he began brushing his thumbs underneath the bowl, gradually increasing his speed until it was at a constant. A few seconds later, he waited, his gaze flickering to the sudden wisps of steam coming forth from the open lid as he looked around. “Stand back, if you don’t want to burn.”   
  
Juyo promptly scooted back.  
  
Nilas rolled off to the side, not even bothered to get up.  
  
Booker backed up as well.   
  
“I’m don’t know how to control these abilities of mine.” Rocket began, glancing towards them. “But the extent of which my capabilities end and sheer luck begin, well…”   
  
All of a sudden his entire form was ablaze, flames lurching over his body and crawling up his arms. Smoke began to bleed through the small vents in his visor, dark cloud coming forth as he held the bowl up to the sky. “I’d say this is a good start.”   
  
Three second later, he knelt down, placing it upon the nearby dirt mount before backing away. “Anymore, and the container would become red hot. This is so it doesn’t turn into steam.”   
  
He took a backwards step, unaware that one of his feet had entered the stream. Pretty soon, the entire crevice of water was bubbling. “Hm, my bad.” He mumbled, removing his boot.  
  
“Cooool,” Juyo said, eyes wide. No matter how many times he saw it, seeing a man set himself ablaze and be perfectly fine was a sight that amazed him. “So that’s it?”  
  
“Take a sip, kid.” Rocket shrugged. “Pretend it’s hot coffee.”   
  
“Kid?” Juyo echoed, quirking an eyebrow and rather deliberately rubbing his beard. “Okay, papa.” He did the same gesture as before, tugging at the water from the bowl until less than half of its contents floated over to his mouth. He poked his lips into the globule and sucked at it, drinking the water. “Yeah, that’s some thirst-quenching hot water, all right.”  
  
“Good. Anyway, I’m going.” Rocket said, standing up and walking over to his bike.   
  
“Where to?” Juyo asked.  
  
“Going to find food.” He replied, climbing over. “To the only place I know, other than this.”   
  
“The forest?” Booker asked.   
  
“Correct.” Rocket answered, jamming the key into the ignition.   
  
“Good luck.” Nilas spoke up from his spot lying in the dirt. “Don’t get raped by a tentacle monster, or that cat demon thing.”  
  
“Deuces, fam,” Juyo waved at him. “We’ll be here. Might pass out in a bit.”  
  
The Man in the helmet could only nod, revving up his engine as he sped away.  
  
Juyo scratched the back of his neck and sighed before turning to look at the remaining two. “I still have some energy in me, so if either of you want to try and get some sleep I can keep watch,” he told them.  
  
“No need.” Booker waved off Juyo’s comment. “I’m exhausted, but probably couldn’t get to sleep anyway.” He motioned to the blood red sky illuminated by the sun hanging overhead. “It’s not exactly the most relaxing of environments.”  
  
“Just thought I’d offer, considering how this day’s gone,” Juyo shrugged. “I’m gonna play with water now.”  
  
“We don’t need to hear about your watersports fetish.” Booker remarked, before stomping and creating a low stone seat to sit on.   
  
“Think I’m gunna lay here till I can feel my legs again.” Nilas muttered, eyes closed.  
  
“No golden showers for me, thanks,” Juyo snorted, already extending a hand toward the stream. “But duly noted. I’ll keep quiet for you, Nilas.”  
  
“Cool.”  
  
\-----  
  
Most people get immersed in their thoughts, if for no other reason than to get away from it all. Such a little thing, wanting to escape your problems. An entirely human desire that stemmed from instinctive fight or flight mechanics. The brain can’t physically transport itself from one area or another, yet it’s ability to dream and immerse itself in thought is where its true power lies. And in here, everything was certainly different. Whereas in the real world one could only imagine of fleeing, here it was possible.  
  
All you had to do was want to get away. To go and cross the distance, placing so much space between yourself and others that it’s the only thing that’d calm you down.  
  
Or so you’d think.   
  
The earthen path of the forest twitched into view, the tires of the bike now kicking up dirt rather than dust as Rocket sped down the clearing. He had to admit- this wasn’t so much for the group’s benefit as it was for his own. Groups weren’t really his thing, and despite being the military, he often found himself keeping to himself more than not. It was just the way he did things, he supposed- how he operated with his own plans and methods. Not that anyone would understand, and not that he’d actually care.   
  
Men with the minds of children. That would sum them up accurately. Sheltered, ignorant, largely unaware of how the reality worked- how it could tell if you were fucking up. Sooner or later they’d find themselves caught in a torrent of shit when it all hit the fan, clinging on to those brittle branches of belief that something great will happen. But this ain’t the movies, there wasn’t anything called a happy ending. When the film ended, the action continued. You had to maintain and hold the goodness, never let go of the advantages you had. As of now, all Rocket could see was entitlement, an instant gratification mindset that’d get them all killed.  
  
But he’d teach them. Oh, by hell he would. It was one thing letting another man die, it was a completely different shade of grey when he dragged you down with him.   
  
It was then that he looked up, watching the light from the rays of the sun burst through the thick canopy above, viridescent glimmers reflecting off his bike as he eased off the gas.   
  
Trees, trees, a couple rocks, and more trees. Figures.   
  
Kicking down the stand for his vehicle, he swung his leg over the side, dusting off his knees before reaching into the sheathe on his boot.   
  
Survivalist training didn’t do shit for him here. Being in a magical world, amongst all this mystical and whimsical BS, it drained him. Never would he have thought that’d, one day, he’d be in a fucking text based porn game. Such an obscure little thing that left his mind long ago, resurging in full force like it has simply missed fucking him in the ass. Perfect. Just perfect.   
  
Walking forward, he shuffled against the dirt, idly watching the ground in an effort to find anything of interest. Despite it only being pebbles and blades of grass, it was fascinating regardless. Such visceral detail, realistic appearance, lifelike even. Something black half buried in the dirt caught his eye, causing him to kneel down and run a gloved hand over the peculiar object. It was hard, and upon giving it a gentle rap with his knuckles, he gripped it, yanking it free as he held it to his face.   
  
“Chintin, maybe?” He grumbled, rolling his head around his shoulders as he stood.   
  
Oversized bees, most likely. Not something you’d want to stick around for. Well, maybe that chunky fuck would. That oversized lardo would probably try to eat it, and not in the sexy way.   
  
Exhaling through his nostrils, he grinned, turning around and sauntering back over to his bike.   
  
Perhaps eventually everything would come back to memory, brief flickers of knowledge among the clouded haze in his brain. Far more likely was the possibility of learning it the hard way, through trial and error, through word of mouth...all that shit. Figures. Life was unkind.  
  
And, as he twisted the throttle back, he supposed that’s why he could live well.  
  
***  
  
The Biker came back a good four hours later, coming to a stop just before the front wheel hit the edge of the stream. Dismounting, he sighed, tossing the black carapace into his own personal loot pile as he knelt down, splashing some water on his face.   
  
“Okay, now that we’re all back together I’ve got something that needs to be said.” Booker stood up from his stone seat. “I’ll be blunt, we can’t sit on our fucking asses and do nothing. We’ve got no food, and some rations meant for one person doesn’t count, no shelter, and a source of water that we aren’t sure is even safe to drink or not. We are completely and utterly fucked if we don’t turn this situation around.”   
  
“Then how do we do that?” Juyo asked after thinking on the bespectacled man’s words for a few moments. “I’m sorry to say I have little in the way of survival skills and even less regarding how this world works.” He sighed and shook his head. “I’m pretty much useless.”  
  
“Fuckin’ straightforward, really.” Rocket sighed, cracking his knuckles as he sat on the ground. “Booker, HeyZeus, and I have relatively decent knowledge about this place, however minimal it may initially seem.” He paused, leaning forward. “What would the ‘hero’ do?”   
  
“Jack off behind a rock.” Booker said to lighten the mood. “But seriously, in the game you didn’t have to worry about food or water because it was a porn game. We basically got to scavenge whatever we can and the forest or lake seems like the best place to start. There’s nothing out here but sunburn waiting to happen.” He spread his arms wide. “I don’t think we’d have much luck finding anything edible out here.”  
  
Nilas grunted in agreement from his spot on the ground, opting to not sit up.  
  
“Hardcore mode then.” The Biker added. “But let me say this. If we just sit here, we WILL starve to death. There’s no getting around that. So get busy moving or get busy dying.”   
  
“Then let’s fuckin’ get on with it,” Juyo replied, standing up and dusting off his jeans. “So we have the forest to forage through, and we have to make sure someone’s on watch for any monsters. You said scavenging earlier, are they any potential sites we could do that?”  
  
“There’s supposed to be town ruins near the lake, though I don’t know if there’d be any food left there.” Booker shrugged. “Foraging is our best bet, though there is the downside of transformative items. I’m sure there’s bound to be some regular fruits or shit left, but we should be on guard for weird looking food. I mean, most are pretty obvious, like a fruit with whiskers on it or a pepper shaped like a dog dick.”  
  
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather be a furry than die,” Juyo sighed. “Shall we, then?”  
  
Nilas chuckled at that, nodding in agreement. “Humanity’s best trait is our adaptability, yada yada. Honestly, a bit of extra parts wouldn’t be too bad.”  
  
“Yep!” Booker suddenly hooked his arms around Juyo’s arm, as Nilas got to his feet and shook his legs. “Well boys, the wizard ain’t gonna wait forever!”  
  
“Enough jokes.” Rocket ordered, his voice firm as he climbed on his bike. “We’re heading to the lake. Jesus, climb on.”   
  
Nilas rolled his eyes at the biker, but forced himself to his feet to obey against his body’s will, not having the energy to argue either way.  
  
“Wait, we’re going to split up into teams of two?” Booker asked in confusion. “Or are we all going to the lake? Why take the bike if we’re going to all travel together?”  
  
“You want some imps fucking with my shit while we’re gone?” Rocket growled, his grip on the handles tightening. “Walk beside the bike. We’ll all go together.”   
  
Juyo silently followed suit, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked on.  
  
“Ah, good point.” Booker nodded and fell in line beside them.   
  
\---  
  
“So this is the lake, huh?” Rocket mumbled, crossing his arms as he stared out into glistening waves, the water still like glass. “Scenic. I’ll give it that much.”   
  
“It is rather pleasant-looking,” Juyo admitted, smiling wistfully as he remembered times spent out on Lake Michigan. “Before I do anything, is this one of those ‘do not disturb the water’ type lakes or can I try bending the water without monsters coming out to gobble us all?”  
  
“There’s a goddess slowly being corrupted out there.” Booker absentmindedly stated as he gazed out over the lake. “Just uh, throwing that out there.” he turned to Juyo. “It’s safe but watch out in case a slime or something bursts out of the water. Though I don't think we should be wasting time on practicing bending at the moment, those are calories we can’t really afford to burn at the moment. Save it for when we have food.”  
  
Nilas grunted in agreement on both points, too tired to verbally agree.  
  
“Just wondering for future reference,” Juyo dismissed. “I’m not going to act on most of the stuff I ask, I just need to know as much as possible if I’m going to be of use here.”  
  
“Shark ladies, slimes, corrupted goo men, tentacles that wanna ram it up the butt… just don’t touch shit.” Rocket explained, beginning to cruise forward. “Booker. Where’s the damn village at?”   
  
“Well shit,” Nilas mumbled, “I’d forgotten more then I thought. Thank fuck it was just a slime.”  
  
“If I remember correctly, you find a path that leads into the forest somewhere near the shore. Given the sheer size of the lake I don’t think we’re gonna be lucky enough to find it right off the bat.” he responded as he eyed up the tree line for any signs of such a path.  
  
“Then I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way.” Came his prompt reply. “Keep your eyes peeled. I don’t want some curious, slimey fuck wondering what all the commotion is about.”   
  
“You really don’t…” Nilas stated wearily as he idly rubbed a sore thigh.  
  
Juyo made a zipping gesture over his mouth and flicked his eyes over to the apparently calm waters of the lake. Nothing appeared to be stirring beneath the waves, but if anything that only made him more anxious.  
  
“So uh, Rocket,” Booker spoke up, “how exactly do we forage for food? Cause what comes to my mind is literally just looking through bushes and shit for anything that looks edible, and I’m sure that’s very wrong.”  
  
“Very wrong. You’d be so wrong, you’d be dead.” The Biker sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t know the wildlife or local fauna, so your guess is as good as mine. Generally if the animals eat it, you can eat it. But the critters here, well, they ain’t exactly your average critters. Far as I can tell, anyway. Regardless, default to survival man mode. Eat bugs, protein, vitamins, all that shit. The fish here are good from what I can tell, if you don’t mind a little corruption.”   
  
“Alright that’s good to know.” Booker nodded. “I think the fish only gave you like one or two corruption points in the game, but I know this isn’t the game. It’d be great if we ran into someone friendly, like Amily, because then we’d have a local survival expert.”   
  
“Hence looking for the path.” Rocket confirmed.   
  
“Right, right.” Booker responded as he kept looking over for any indication of a path. “Just don’t get too hung up on it, we should have some backup in case we can’t find it… Hell even if we do we might not run into her.”  
  
“Who’s Amily?” Juyo asked distractedly, still keeping his eyes glued to the water.  
  
“Mouse girl. Her village was plundered by demons. Everyone is dead- ‘cept for her. Last of her kind.” Rocket said, turning to four eyes. “Shit happens.”   
  
Juyo shook his head, flexing his right hand once. “Why am I not surprised,” he groaned. “Fuckin’ demons. Sooner they’re purged the better.”  
  
“Damn right.” Booker chimed in. “Also, in the game, she wanted to repopulate her race and if the player character was male she’d ask them to fuck her but that was a porn game, so disregard that.”  
  
Nilas grinned to himself, then chuckled. “Wonder if she squeaks like a mouse. Can’t remember much from the game of her.”  
  
“Ooookaaaay,” Juyo drawled, risking a look away from the lake to roll his eyes at Booker’s comment. “Whatever. You guys see anything of note yet? All’s quiet on the western front here.”  
  
“Nothin’ but freshwater land crabs and some rocks.” Rocket shrugged, leaning back.   
  
“Wait crabs?! Where?!” Booker frantically looked around for signs of life. “I’m not allergic to shellfish, not fond of it, but I can still eat it. It’s better than nothing.”  
  
“On the shoreline.” Rocket gestured in front of him. “I got plenty of snacks. If you want to go run after ‘em, be my guest.”   
  
“Hell yeah,” Juyo said, walking over the nearest crab. It was a dull, grey critter, barely as big as his hand as it slowly skittered along the beach. He picked it up with two fingers, carefully to avoid the claws that feebly flailed about in the air. “Love me some crabmeat.”  
  
Nilas shrugged and followed suit. “Better than nothing.” He stated as he leant down and grabbed a crab in each hand.  
  
Booker walked up beside Juyo. “Huh, that was easy. We don’t have anything to hold them in though… I’m gonna try something hold on a second.”   
  
He walked up the sandy shore until he was standing on the dirt, careful to keep his eye out. He took a breath and then stomped to call up a stone pillar from the ground. It was as crude as the ones he made before, but this time in a flash of inspiration, he moved his hands around the top of it as if it was wet clay. It jerked in an unnatural fashion, twitching and being demorphed as he moved his hands, but after a few seconds he had managed to create a dip into the top of the pillar and widen the mouth of it. He jerked his arms upwards and caused the top to break from the rest of the pillar.   
  
He grabbed the stone bucket and walked back up to Juyo with a massive grin on his face. “Hey guys, look what I made!”  
  
“Beautiful,” Juyo said with a silly grin, dumping his crab in the bucket, with Nilas doing the same. “You’re getting better at that, man.” As he spoke, he looked around in search of more crabs. After finding none, he frowned. “Hurm. No mas. Guess we’ll keep moving.”  
  
\---  
  
“Two for each of us ain’t too shabby,” Juyo noted as the four of them sat around a small campfire, above which a pot of boiling crabs simmered.   
  
A rustling noise came from the corner in which Rocket sat, and upon turning, they found him leaned up against a rock, his fist shoved in an open bag of Lays Salt and Vinegar chips.   
  
Booker stared up at the dark, starless sky, only illuminated by a red moon. “That’s still creepy as fuck.”  
  
Juyo followed his gaze. “An unfamiliar sky,” he breathed, though the words didn’t sound like his own. A few seconds passed by in silence between the four of them, up until he spoke again. “Guess this isn’t a dream after all.” He sounded resigned.  
  
Nilas, meanwhile, seemed utterly focused on the flames in front of them, a small frown on his face.  
  
“You’ve been thinking it’s a dream?” Booker asked aloud, not taking his eyes off the sky.   
  
Juyo shrugged in response. “Not every day you get tossed into an alternate world with a bunch of randos,” he said. “But no, not really. It feels more real than any dream or nightmare I’ve had before.” As if for emphasis, he dug his fingers into the red dirt and lifted his hand, feeling the dirt flow along his skin back down to the ground. “Just thinking aloud is all.”  
  
“Huh, fair enough.” Booker shrugged. “It didn’t really seem like a dream to me at all, in spite of how weird it was, still is. Though I wouldn’t mind waking up back in bed any second now.”   
  
Rocket remained silent, casting a wayward glance towards the three as he lightly shrugged. “They tell you to always have a plan.” He began, crumpling up the empty bag after having finished it off. “But there’s no preparing for something like this. In time, perhaps we’ll learn to adjust. Maybe we’ll all go home. Regardless of what happens in the future, you gotta take each day a second at a time.”   
  
“Pretty much,” Juyo groaned, leaning back to recline on the ground.   
  
“Yeah.” Booker mumbled in agreement, then eyed up the bucket turned pot of crabs. “So, how much longer do you figure they need?”  
  
Nilas cupped his chin ponderously. “No clue. Can’t cook for shit.”  
  
It wasn’t long until the crabs were ready for consumption, and the four of them silently dove into their meager catch for the day. It wasn’t much, it was bland, and more than one couldn’t stand shellfish back home, but it was food.   
  
With stomachs a little less empty than they used to be, they settled down to try and get some sleep. It was decided that someone had to stay up as a sentry, on account of no one wanting to wake up with rape demons trying to snuggle with them, so Juyo volunteered for the first watch.   
  
As they all settled in their own ways, Juyo hummed a tune under his breath. An old song he’d heard, about finding adventure in a new land. It was painfully optimistic and almost painful to think about now, but he desperately clung to it.  
  
Anything to forget his current situation, and the red haze that’d clouded his mind when he saw those imps.


	5. Chapter 5

  
“Rise and shine, boys.” Rocket echoed, sitting upon the rock as he watched the red sun rise over the horizon. They had a restless night, it seemed. He couldn’t blame them; it was probably the first time any of these guys pulled a sentry shift in their life. The Biker was used to it, however, and often found himself needing less sleep than most. A night owl, he liked to call himself, but that was probably only because of the deeply rooted insomnia that had taken hold over the years- he’d merely adapted to it, and learned to love it. “Ass crack o’ dawn and the world stretches out before us. I’d like to end today better off than last night, wouldn’t you lads agree?”  
  
“Mmf,” Juyo grumbled, wiping his dreary eyes and letting out a big yawn before continuing. “Agreed.” He could already feel the sharp pang of hunger in his stomach. To no one’s surprise, a couple tiny crabs did little to satiate someone.  
  
Booker reluctantly sat up, his back aching from sleeping on the hard ground. “I’m up, just give me a second to get started.” He blinked the sleep from his eyes and slowly looked around. “Yep, still in hell.” He muttered.  
  
Nilas groaned, then shifted and pressed his face back into the dirt, seemingly dead to the world.  
  
“So what’s the plan?” Juyo asked as he pushed himself up and idly wiped some dust off. “To be honest, I won’t really be able to sleep easy until we have some stability.”  
  
“We continue the search for that abandoned village near the lake.” Rocket began, sliding off the rock. “We’ll find equipment there. Hell, might even be able to move a mattress or two.”  
  
Juyo nodded. “Sounds gucci to me,” he replied.  
  
“Here’s hoping we can find anything.” Booker got up and stretched, which did little to help with the back pain. “Also, if we do find it, we should probably avoid talking about Amily, the rat girl, while we’re there. It would probably look suspicious.”  
  
“She’s the one who had her whole people wiped out by the demons, right?” Juyo double-checked. He stood up and stretched his back before walking over to the stream.  
  
“That she is.” Rocket nodded. “Careful not to make any sudden movements. There’s no tellin’ what she’ll be like in real life.”  
  
“Understood,” Juyo noted, splaying out one of his hands over the stream and furrowed his brows as he concentrated. Slowly, a shaky, miniscule pillar of water rose up to meet his hand. “I can’t tell if this is getting easier or not,” he groaned.  
  
“Only one way to find out.” Rocket replied. “Now then, let’s go.”  
  
“Uh, shouldn't we get Nilas up first?” Booker asked aloud, as he nudged the prone Aussie with his foot. “We can’t leave him behind.”  
  
“Hm,” Juyo murmured, tapping his chin before his eyes lit up. “Might as well practice a little waterbending whip action,” he said with a slight smirk. In a terrible attempt at one fluid motion, he twirled his arm around and thrust it outward in Nilas’s direction. The water shot out…  
  
… about a couple millimeters before losing cohesion and splattering to the ground. Juyo sighed and visibly deflated. “Worth a shot, I suppose,” he groaned.  
  
“Bit of a dick move, trying to whip him like that.” Booker remarked, before kneeling down and shaking Nilas by his shoulder. “Come on, get up.”  
  
“Wasn’t actually gonna whip him,” Juyo grumbled. “More like splash his face a little.”  
  
Nilas groaned, rolling onto his back and blinking dully up at the sky. He was quiet for a moment, before he croaked out, “What the fuck.”  
  
“Rise and shine, sunshine, we’re still in hell.” Booker helpfully informed him.  
  
The aussie threw a hand over his eyes. “Fuck. great.”  
  
“Yeah, that was about my reaction.” He replied and stood back up.  
  
“So what now?” Nilas asked from his position in the dirt, stretching out and trying to pop the stiffness from sleeping on the ground.  
  
“Four-eyes with the goatee.” Rocket began, gesturing to Juyo. “Tell ‘im.”  
  
Juyo quirked an eyebrow at the helmeted biker, but elected to keep a certain comment unspoken. “We’re going to the town ruins,” he told Nilas, looking down at him. “Or at least going to try to find it and see if there are any supplies we can use there.”  
  
“Right.” Nilas nodded slightly, eyes still half-lidded. “It’s in a forest, I think.”  
  
“Yeah, but the trail started on the edge of the lake.” Booker interjected. “That’s why we were looking around the lake yesterday. It’s just… the lake is big.”  
  
“Now we got the whole day to look for it.” Rocket replied. “So let’s go.”  
  
Juyo silently nodded and started to walk on.  
  
Groaning, the Australian staggered to his feet and stretched. Rubbing his face, he sighed and stumbled after the group.  
  
***  
  
The four continued where they’d left off the previous day, walking along the edge of the lake and keeping a wary eye for danger and food alike. Booker was looking at the edges of the forest for any indication of a path and alternating to glancing at the lake itself, wary of a random monster bursting from its depths. There was little conversation to be had, for a multitude of reasons, whether they be grogginess, sleep deprivation, hunger, or simple lack of desire for small talk.  
  
At least, until Juyo began to ponder the powers they’ve inexplicably been given.  
  
“How much control would you guys say you have over your bending?” he started with a question, rubbing his fuzzy chin.  
  
“Very little.” was Nilas’ reply. “I can kind of make wind, but that’s it.”  
  
“I’d actually say the opposite.” Booker replied. “I think that we have a lot of control for a bunch of randos who got bending only a day ago. In the show it took Katara years to do anything except float water in the air and day two, Juyo, you’re trying to make a whip. I mean it failed, but the fact that you got anywhere is an indication that we’ve got power. Hell, I had a sandstorm around my limbs. I don’t remember anyone from the show being able to do that, much less an inexperienced bender.”  
  
“I know the forms, Katara didn’t,” Juyo corrected, folding his arms.  
  
“Touché.”  
  
“Holy shit you fucking weebs.” Rocket sighed. “The extent of this shit I have been cursed with boils down to being able to set myself a-fucking-blaze and being able to turn it off. That, and this.” He hunched over into a boxer’s stance, raising his fists up as he punched in the empty air three times. Each blow, his hands became engulfed in flames, searing hot for but a brief moment before he pulled them back in. “Flamin’ fists.”  
  
Juyo watched Rocket thoughtfully and hummed, adjusting his glasses. “Never saw firebenders able to set themselves on fire like you can,” he admitted. “The fire punches, though, I’m pretty sure happened a couple times.” He waved a hand dismissively. “Anyway, my point was that, once we get more food and have a kinda-sorta steady supply, we should dedicate a set amount of time to training. I [know a bunch of forms for all styles, and that’d be the best way to at least _know_ what we’re doing. Otherwise all we’re gonna do is putz around and hope whatever random shit we do gets a result that won’t get us killed.”  
  
“Kind of fucked if it doesn’t work,” muttered Nilas from the back of the group. “Fire and earth can be dangerous even with little experience. The fuck can air do? Make a stiff breeze for a moment.”  
  
“But in time you can make a tornado, or even a vacuum,” Juyo replied. “If this world is as hellish as you all say, then we _need_ that kind of power if we want to survive. Rocket can control combustion and lightning if he got to that point, Booker can bury anyone we come across, and I can bloodbend!” Stopping himself, Juyo took a breath and calmed himself down. He briefly wondered how fucked it up that he was getting excited over the prospect, but cast it aside for now. “I just… I just don’t want to die here,” he finished quietly. “We have the means to keep that from happening, and I don’t want to squander it.”  
  
‘I know.” Nilas grunted. “S’why I said ‘if it doesn’t work.’ Never watched a lot of the show, but I remember enough to know that shit like that takes a lot of skill and time.”  
  
Juyo nodded. “Hence why I want to get started proper as soon as possible. Even if we’re not training proper, we should at least be doing something with bending at any given moment. Like exercising a muscle.”  
  
“Yeah, but let’s focus on finding food first. I’m as excited as the next guy, and trust me I want to go back to fucking around, it has to wait.” Booker commented as he kept scanning the area.  
  
“Does anyone want to split up?” Rocket said. “Or is that still a no no?”  
  
“If people think it’ll help, then I’m for it,” Juyo shrugged.  
  
“Eh… only if it’s in pairs.” Booker was unsure about the idea. “I don’t like the idea but it would let us cover more ground.”  
  
“Any powers that complement each other?” Rocket asked. “You know, for combat effectiveness?”  
  
“All four can complement each other pretty well if you’re skilled enough. Obviously that’s not the case, so…” Juyo paused to consider. “Air could carry your fire further, or at least spread the heat more easily to discomfort whatever’s attacking you.”  
  
Nilas piped up from behind. “Yeah, for now let’s act like I don’t have any powers at all. I can barely use them.”  
  
“Agreed, pairing up based on bending ability seems a bit daft. We should probably pair up by… fighting ability I guess.” Booker shrugged. “Rocket’s got a knife and knows how to use it, so anyone that goes with you should be someone with less ability that way you could cover them. We don’t want to put the two people who suck the most at fighting together because if they got jumped they’d be fucked, possibly literally.” He stamped a foot and caused a large rock to fly up into the air, and grabbed it. “Now me, I’ve got a rock, doesn’t count for much and anyone else could pick one up, but I got a rock.”  
  
“So who doesn’t feel confident in their ability to defend themselves?” Rocket asked, crossing his arms. “You’ll be with me.”  
  
“A’ight.” Was Nilas’ basic reply.  
  
“Right.” The Biker nodded. “I suppose the waterboy and earth guy over there will cover the other half of the lake.” He paused, turning. “We need to find the ruins.”  
  
“Sounds good to me.” Booker nodded and looked to Juyo.  
  
“Gucci with me,” Juyo shrugged. “And yeah, the sooner we find them, the better.”  
  
\-----  
  
“It’s been three hours since we’ve gotten here.” Rocket sighed, shaking his head. “The game made finding all this shit look easy.”  
  
“It’s a fucking huge lake, yeah. The game didn’t really do it justice.” Nilas agreed.  
  
“Understatement of the fucking year.” Rocket nodded. “See anything interesting so far?” He looked over, gesturing around the vicinity. “There’s nothing here. Trees, a beach, and water as far as the I can see.”  
  
The aussie thought for a moment, frowning. “Well, the town was just ruins right? That means any path is probably overgrown. Shit, we could have walked past it already.” Nilas groaned at the thought.  
  
If his helmet could make facial expressions, it’d be teetering on the edge of exasperation. “Alright.” Rocket sighed, lightly placing the tips of his fingers against his visor. “If that’s the case, then maybe we should just scrounge around for anything of use. If we find something, great. If not, well, let’s at least not run into any trouble.”  
  
“Like what?” Nilas asked. “I suppose there might be food growing around here somewhere. And the farm has shit.”  
  
“Well, if you can find it, that’d be fuckin’ swell.” Rocket replied. “Pretty sure there was a sword around here too, now that I think of it.”  
  
“Oh yeah, the beautiful sword or something.” Nilas nodded, “I remember it being really s- Fuck!”  
  
Suddenly, the young man’s foot rolled and he staggered forward, almost falling to his hands and knees. Glancing back, he spotted a oddly-shaped vial sticking out of the sandy ground. “Where the fuck did that come from.”  
  
“You alright?” Rocket deadpanned. “You didn’t roll your ankle or anything, right?” He walked forward, kneeling down and jamming his hand into the sand. “Watch where you place your feet next time.”  
  
“That wasn’t there a moment before, I swear to god.” replied Nilas, “But nah, I’m fine.”  
  
The Biker retracted his hand, brushing off the grains of sand from his gloves as he held the vial to the sun. “Equinum.” He stated, tossing it to Nilas. “Finders keepers.”  
  
Nilas put his hands out to catch it, actually curious about it. He turned it in his hand. It was obviously shaped liked a certain anatomy of a horse, with the name written on it around the middle. “Did ya ever wonder just who the hell makes these, labels them, and leaves them here? It’s frickin weird.” He slid the vial into his pocket. “May as well keep it. Might be able ta sell it.”  
  
“Have to get to the city first.” Rocket added. “And who knows how long that will take. I don’t think we should stick around that hellhole the way the hero did. If anything, it’d be better to try and find a job, room and board- something along those lines that will better our chances of survival. And, if possible, find someone who may have a clue just on how to get the fuck out of this place.”  
  
“Agreed. Only thing is, the city is in the desert right? Which means getting anywhere we’d have to go through it every time.” Nilas scratched his beard. “Weren’t there pretty dangerous things there?”  
  
“Who is to say that you can’t relocate?” Rocket asked. “Think about it. If anyone kept thinking of the initial place where they had wound up, it’d be a nightmare to get anything done, wouldn't you say?”  
  
“Oh no, I know that.” Nilas waved a hand. “I just mean that living in the city, unless we stay there all the time, trying to get back to here from there might be a bitch. And pretty dangerous.”  
  
“The hero didn’t seem to have a problem.” Rocket shrugged. “They just thought of returning and they did. It’s only when they explored did they really encounter problems.”  
  
“Hmm, true.” The aussie conceded. “Guess we won’t know till we try.”  
  
“Right.” The Biker nodded. “So what now?”  
  
“Maybe try sticking close to the trees a bit more?” Nilas suggested, “Might be a bit more dangerous, but it’ll be easier to find anything.”  
  
“Took the words right outta my mouth.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Hey, I think I found a path over here,” Juyo called out to Booker, hunched over beside a bush and brushing aside some leaves off the ground.  
  
Booker came over. “Oh, really?”  
  
“Yarp,” the bearded fellow confirmed. He scattered the last bits of loose foliage to reveal what looked to be the remains of a stony path, heavily worn by the elements. It wound onward through scattered trees along the lake’s edge.  
  
“Uh, yeah that’s a path alright.” Booker nodded, glancing from the stony path towards the forest. “Think we should follow it?”  
  
“It’s more of a lead than anything we’ve seen in this desolate shithole,” Juyo replied, standing up with a groan and wiping off his hands on his jeans. He grimaced at the steadily accumulating layer of dirt on his clothes, but knew that whining about it was more than pointless. “Besides, you guys were saying it should lead to the ruins, right? I say we go for it, so we can at least find the place.”  
  
“Yeah, and it’s probably going to be easier to get back to the ruins themselves, instead of an overgrown path.” He idly remarked.   
  
“Excellent, then let’s get going,” Juyo decided, already making his way down the path.  
  
“Alright, lead the way.” Booker jovially replied as he followed right behind Juyo, taking care not to trip on exposed roots or rocks hidden amongst the underbrush.   
  
The sound of shoes against stone echoed through the eerily quiet woods, where it seemed not even insects were skittering about, let alone chirping birds or other forest critters. The ever-present waves of the lake were there, of course, but were steadily growing distant as they moved further into the trees.  
  
“If we get to the ruins, should we wait for the other two or do you think we can check them out a little first?” Juyo asked, if only to push aside the oppressive silence for a little bit. The less time he had overthinking the situation, the better. “We may need to be a little urgent, what with our distinct lack of supplies.”  
  
“I think we should definitely check it out, though I’m not holding my breath in terms of finding supplies. I’m pretty sure it’s been abandoned for years. If we’re lucky we might find an overgrown garden with something edible still in it but even then I wouldn’t count on it.” Booker was warily eyeing up the forest around them, worried another tentacle bush might attack them. “Besides, we don’t know where Rocket and Nilas are, so it’ll probably result in a wild goose chase or something.”  
  
“Fair enough,” Juyo nodded. “It may not turn anything up, but… Well, a couple more days like this and we’ll have to look for some kind of civilization, regardless of the risks. Like that city, what’d you guys call it… Tellard?”  
  
“It’s Tel…” Booker brought his free hand to his chin. “Adre I think. I only remembered the name because it sounded like Tel Aviv. If we can’t find food we’re probably have to go back to the lake and look for some more shellfish.” He didn’t really get why the other seemed so fixated on the idea that there was food at the ruins. It was entirely possible that there was something edible, but he still found it odd how all their hope seemed to be riding on the ruins. Though he didn’t voice such concerns.   
  
“Got it,” Juyo said. At that, the two went quiet once more, having no more to really say to each other. They kept on walking for a while after that, only occasionally pausing when they thought they’d heard something. Nothing came, however. The apparent emptiness of the forest was a bit striking, but Juyo chalked it up to the odd nature of the world they were in.   
  
Finally, after over an hour of following the path, they found it.  
  
The shattered remains of a stone wall lay crumbled in the distance, broken bits of rock and earth left where they’d fallen all around the landscape. The trees were fewer near the wall, though a few saplings had begun to sprout along the forest’s edge. Underbrush and thick grass was far more prevalent, spreading all along the stones and crawling into the ruins within. While they couldn’t see most of the town, it was easy enough to spot the splintered wood and burnt out husks of old buildings through the gaps in the wall.  
  
“Bingo,” Juyo breathed, though he lingered inside the forest and anxiously kept to the shadows.  
  
“Yep, there it is.” Booker surveyed the ruined buildings, though nothing immediately stood out to him. “We should probably be careful about any falling buildings and the like, don’t want to be standing next to a stone wall when it finally decides to fall down.”  
  
“Yeah, let’s avoid the taller structures,” Juyo agreed, rubbing his bearded chin. “Do you think any monsters would be lurking there at all?”  
  
“No idea, best to be on guard but don’t attack the first person we see if they don’t start shit first. Assuming we run into any one of course.” He added as an afterthought.   
  
“Got it. Guess… Uh, guess I’ll go first then.” Juyo hesitantly stepped out of the forest, tentatively looking back and forth as he walked through the small field of saplings and grass. The soft padding of his shoes against plantlife were the only sounds to be heard, aside from his shaky breathing. Putting one foot in front of the other, he slowly but eventually reaching the dessicated wall. Half-turning toward Booker, he called out, “Hey, you coming?”  
  
“Yeah, sorry, spaced out there for a second.” He started following behind Juyo, walking right behind him to hide their numbers. There was another reason though, a selfish one at that. If there were any traps then Juyo was likely to trigger them, since he was in front of Booker.   
  
The two began to make their way deeper into the ruins, staring warily at the unpleasant sights around them.  
  
Streaks of black, the only remaining signs of the fire that had undoubtedly ravaged the town, were smeared across buildings and streets alike like scars. The occasional creaking of rotten wood would startle the two, causing them both to freeze and reflexively lower themselves, neither moving until they felt the coast was clear. They continued on like that for a few minutes, until the tension grew to the point that Juyo couldn’t keep quiet any longer.  
  
“I’m not seeing any bodies,” he noted in a whisper, crinkling his nose. “And I don’t smell anything dead. How long ago do you think this happened?”  
  
“I’m not sure.” Booker responded as he surveyed the decaying ruins. “But definitely quite a while ago.”  
  
“Well, let’s at least check out a couple buildings before waiting for the other guys,” Juyo muttered, adjusting his glasses. “This place gives me the fucking creeps.”  
  
“Sure,” he nodded in agreement, “lead the way.”   
  
Juyo shot him an odd look. “Why am I the one leading? You know way more about everything in this world than I do.”  
  
“Dude, I don’t actually know the layout of this town. Plus I don’t like the idea of entering a half collapsed building.” He sheepishly shrugged. “Didn’t really have an interest in urban exploration.”  
  
“Fair enough,” Juyo sighed, shaking his head. After turning a bit, he set his gaze on a nearby shack that had its walls still relatively intact. The roof even had most of its shingles. “Fuck it, we’ll do it live. Going in that one.” At that, he brazenly strode toward the building with a confidence he really wasn’t feeling at all.  
  
“Oh, alright then.” Booker hurried to catch up to Juyo, falling in step behind him and keeping an eye on the surroundings. He was so caught off guard by Juyo’s flagrant walking that he didn’t even laugh at the stupid, but silly reference that Juyo made.   
  
Juyo stepped in the doorway, saw what lay within, and immediately froze. “Hey, Booker…” he started slowly, keeping his voice low. “You feel like something’s off here?”  
  
Booker paused and looked around , the only sound a gentle breeze and their own breathing. “No?... No more than usual. Why? See something?”  
  
“Just a… Hurm,” Juyo grunted, scratching at the back of his head in frustration. “I can’t quite place it, but you could feel like nothing’s been touched outside for a long time, right?”  
  
“Could feel like nothing’s been touched outside for a long time?” Booker parroted, confused by Juyo’s wording. “You mean the fact that this place looks abandoned?”  
  
Juyo was quiet for a few moments, carefully considering his next words. “It’s hard to explain if you haven’t experienced it yourself. I’ve been to some _old_ places, places that you can tell haven’t had any humans in them for years. The air is stale, the dust layer is thicker than your finger, things like that. It’s also more than that, though.” He paused. “Like you’re disturbing something. _That’s_ what I mean, and what I’m trying to get at is that I’m not getting that feeling in here. I think someone’s been in here. Recently.”  
  
“Oh.” Booker muttered, understanding dawning on him. He wanted to mention that meant that Amily was likely nearby, but that was relying on probably wrong meta knowledge. It could have been anyone, from an imp to another person lost that had stumbled across the ruins looking for shelter. Plus if Amily was nearby he doubted that she’d be understanding if he said he knew about her. “Maybe someone’s using it as shelter? Ruins or not, it’s probably better than anything I could make for now and most people don’t have earthbending.”   
  
“Mm,” Juyo hummed, rubbing his beard. “You make a good point. Do you think _we_ would be better off hiding out here, or is this place too close to… uh, undesirables?”  
  
“Hm...” Booker thought it over. “Well it is shelter and it seems pretty hidden, but it doesn’t have a source of water like that little stream. The nearest source seems to be the lake and that’s pretty corrupted.”  
  
“Right,” Juyo nodded. “Pros and cons to both places, I guess. We can talk it over with the other two when we meet up again. For now, let’s scrounge. Could you keep watch while I dig around?”  
  
“Sure thing.” Booker noddded. “If I see someone should I try to be quiet and subtle or just yell and then we run?”  
  
“I’d say be subtle no matter what, but if it’s going to come close no matter what, I guess it depends,” Juyo murmured. “If it looks like it can outrun us, be subtle. If not, do whatever. We should be able to get enough of a lead to teleport that way.”  
  
“Alright.” He nodded again, and then crouched down behind some debris. He had a good field of view and felt that he was at least slightly hidden by the stone wall and rotten wooden supports.   
  
Juyo got to rummaging. Overall, it was a simple, one-room building cluttered with debris. Rotten wood, the shattered remnants of what he _thought_ was furniture splayed all over the place. Ragged tears of dull cloth hung along what might’ve once been a bedpost and the windows. Wary of splinters, Juyo covered his hands with his sleeves before tentatively moving the bigger chunks of litter around in hopes of finding something underneath.   
  
After some awkward failed attempts, his efforts bore fruit: a single fork that was partially rusted.  
  
“Huzzah,” he whispered in a dull voice, taking it all the same. As an eating implement it was probably hazardous, but maybe he could shank an imp with it or something. You never knew when a rusty fork might come in handy. “Hey, got a fork. Kinda rusty, but, y’know, it’s something.”  
  
“Well we can’t eat with it but it’d be useful if I want to try metal bending.” Booker quietly replied.   
  
“So long as _something_ here is useful,” Juyo grumbled, carefully pocketing the utensil.   
  
“Yeah.” Booker agreed before scrunching his nose in disgust. The smells of rotting wood and mould had been bothering him since they arrived in the ruined town, but it was nothing compared to overwhelming miasma that had started to permeate the air. It seemed like it was growing stronger and he coughed when the breeze picked up. “Fucking hell, smells awful.”  
  
That’s when he noticed a dull but consistent thumping coming towards him and Juyo. The stone wall he was leaning against itself wasn’t shaking but somehow he could actually feel the ground vibrate beneath them. It was as if something was walking towards them…   
  
“Juyo,” he half-hissed as the realization hit him. “Something’s coming this way. Hide, _now_.”  
  
\---  
  
Nilas crouched at the treeline, peering at the ground between the scrub for any sign of a pathway. Grunting in defeat, he looked over at the helmeted man to his side. “Nope. Still nothing.”  
  
“Well, this is fucking retarded.” Rocket grumbled, sighing as placed a hand on his waist. “What are we even doing here at this point? We should just head back.”   
  
“Looking for the town ruins, or anything or interest, really.” He stood and shrugged. “Not like we’d be doing much else.”  
  
The brief conversation was interrupted by the growing sound of movement in the trees, heading towards the two.  
  
Nilas stepped back warily, glancing at Rocket. “So, uh… leg it?”  
  
Rocket shook his head. “No, ride it.”   
  
He swung his leg over his bike, kicking up the stand before glancing over his shoulder. “Either come along and not face this thing, or stay and face the unknown.”   
  
The long-haired man nodded, and went to move towards the bike. His hands touched it just as the sound reached the edge of the trees behind them, and he froze in surprise when a thud and feminine cry of surprise sounded up. Glancing curiously back over his shoulder, he found himself staring a a small shapely figure face-planted in the ground, her sizable heart-shaped rear sticking up. “Uh…”  
  
The Biker only stared, his face neutral behind the dark tint of his visor. “....Goblin.”   
  
The diminutive figure jerked up suddenly, not even noticing them as she glanced behind herself fearfully. She seemed highly tense, her green skin covered in sheen of sweat and dirt; Breasts heaving as she panted heavily. She seemed ragged and dazed.   
  
Sighing happily, she turned and froze; Spotting the two men staring at her. Then, a lecherous grin spread across her face. “Well, hello there boys~ What are two handsome men such as yourselves doing all the way out he-AAH~!” The goblin went to stand, and somehow managed to overbalance and fall with another feminine cry.  
  
Nilas seemed entranced by the sight, both out of confusion, shock and enjoying the view. Watching her fall, and without really thinking, he went to step forward to help her.  
  
Rocket said nothing, aiming to let the worst happen. Experience was a hell of a teacher.  
  
The Jesus look-alike took a few steps forward before his instinctive desire to help faded, and he realised just what he was doing. He pulled up short, just about ready to backpedal when the goblin noticed. The shortstack seductress leaned up on her elbows and grinned wider somehow. Thrusting her chest out, she spread her legs wide and giggled; The leather straps of her ‘outfit’ pressing tight against her copious flesh. “Ooh, looks like we have some interest already. Want to get fucked, cutie?”  
  
Nilas jerked back, turning his gaze upwards as he fought to keep himself for turning into an embarrassed wreck. He shook his head. And that’s when the woman pounced.  
  
Or would have, if she had regained her balance yet. Whatever she had been running from had done a number on her and tired her greatly. She fell short of the man, smashing her tits painfully into the dirt. “Fuck!”  
  
“You done now, fellas?” Rocket said, crossing his arms from his place on the motorcycle. “I don’t think anyone is getting ‘fucked’ today. Unless you want to, hippie.” He gestured to Nilas. “But if you do, I’m leavin’.   
  
The goblin growled, and clawed her way to her feet as Nilas moved quickly back to the bike; Wary but still embarrassed. She pointed a manicured finger at the two. “Oh no, I’m getting fucked right here, right now, you hear me! I didn't run away for my life from being torn in two just to lose this chance! You’ll be much more agreeable when I-” She reached for one of her straps, pausing when she couldn’t find whatever she was looking for. Her eyes widened, and she slapped her hands desperately over her body; Making the flesh jiggle alluringly. “Fuck, fuck, I must have dropped them all when that damn- It doesn’t matter.” She dropped into a fighting stance. “I’ll do this the hard way then.”  
  
“Look lady.” The long-haired man croaked out, clearing his throat awkwardly. “This really isn’t, uh, a good idea, ok. Just… leave, please.”  
  
“Alright, lady. I’ll fuck you up, just not in the way you wanted.” Rocket growled, kicking the stand back down and getting off the bike.   
  
Nilas shot the biker a worried side glance, but didn’t say anything.  
  
The goblin leered at him “I guess you want to fill me first, then. Alright.”  
  
She moved forward, a little more steady on her feet than before, but it was obvious she was still struggling. Bringing a small fist back, she punched Rocket in the gut.  
  
In the event of close contact with the enemy, a soldier is to resort to hand to hand combat should a weapon not be on hand.   
  
Rocket grunted as the fist, impacted the heavy leather padding of his jacket, feeling the force in his gut as he slouched over slightly. However, it did little to prevent him from grabbing the green girl’s wrist, a gloved hand reaching towards her chin as a leg sweeped under her own.   
  
The woman growled for the man to let her go, her other fist hitting him a few times, before Rocket took her legs out from under her. Still tired and unready, she went down hard.  
  
Pinning her arms down, he leaned down, visor pressing against her face. “You calm?”  
  
She nodded, her breathing growing deeper as her eyelids drooped. She bit her lip, thighs rubbing together. “Mmm, when you’ve got me like this? I couldn’t even if I wanted to, baby. Now, are you going to whip that cock out already?” In a display of surprising flexibility, she pressed her foot against the biker’s crotch.  
  
Immediately he clambered off of her, hand raised to his helmet in disgust. “Oh, no! God no!”  
  
The light sound of snickering reached the two, as Nilas pressed a hand to his mouth to stifle his laughter. His face was no longer red, though he did still seem uncomfortable looking at the green-skinned woman.  
  
Said woman groaned in annoyance, swiping a hand through her purple punk hair. “What, are you gay or something? Cause I can help you with that, sweetie. Just one go with me, and you’ll never go back.”  
  
“You’ve just fought me, lady! We’re enemies!” Rocket replied, looking towards Nilas.   
  
The long-haired man tried to school his face and shrugged. “Goblins don’t care, so long as they get fucked.”  
  
The goblin giggled, reaching down to grab one of her ankles and bring her thick leg up beside her head; Dripping slit on display. “The cutie has it right. You can do whatever you want to me, so long as I get nice and filled at the end.”  
  
Nilas looked uncomfortable with the nickname, but said nothing, instead gesturing at the bike with his head.  
  
Rocket held up a hand. “No, I’m not done yet.”  
  
He turned his attention back to the goblin. “Where did you come from?”   
  
The woman, growing irritated, scowled. “Why does it matter? Just hurry up and fuck me, damn it! Are you a eunuch, is that it?” She grinned cruelly. “It did seem awfully empty down there.”  
  
At this Rocket scowled, reaching down and for the knife tucked in his boot. He paused, then thought better of it. “And you ruined your chances, good job.” He said, standing up and dusting himself off. “Let’s go, Hippie.”   
  
“Pussy!” She shouted, letting her leg go to get to her feet. Instead, she turned the attention to Nilas, who was standing awkwardly; caught mid-way through adjusting his pants. “How about you then?~” She reached out a beckoning hand to him.   
  
Nilas was, he had to admit, more than a little tempted. This was… well, a lot more woman than he had seen on display in a while. But, he had no desire to be a father anytime soon, if ever. He shook his head. “Uh, sorry but nah.”  
  
The goblin grew furious. “I swear, if I had my potions…” Then she threw herself at the retreating Rocket, putting her whole weight into the tackle.  
  
“What do you want, lady!” He shouted, hunched forward and stumbling as she crawled around on his back.   
  
“Fuck me! Fill me! Make me pregnant!” She shrieked, trying to throw the biker off balance. Watching, the long-haired man seemed torn on what to do, the sight too surreal. “Give me babies!”  
  
“I just met you! You could be carrying something! What about the dangers of unprotected sex, you disgusting slut?” Rocket retorted, starting to flail around.   
  
“I can mix up something for that! Stopping being a pussy and fuck! Me!” The goblin managed to get her arm under the chin of the helmet, wrapping it around Rocket’s throat and squeezing. At the same time, her meaty thighs clamped tightly around his back.  
  
Seeing it, Nilas finally moved. He moved forward, and wrapped his hands awkwardly around the woman’s soft midsection after a brief hesitation. “What the fuck! That’s enough! Stop!”  
  
“What's in it for me?” Rocket half shouted half huffed, ignorant of the war developing between his companion and the goblin.  
  
The naked woman growled, and tightened her chokehold even further. She hissed, loud enough for the man to hear through his helmet. “Nothing. I would have given you the fuck of your life, but you’ve fucked me around and I’ve had enough. Now hurry up and pass out!”  
  
“Fall..flat on my...back and...squish you?” Rocket choked out. “Alright!”  
  
He put all effort into throwing himself on his back, even catching a little air as he aimed for a particularly rough spot of dirt.  
  
Nilas had a moment of surprise at the resistance suddenly disappearing. Then a moment of horror as he started to go backwards with the other two. “Fuck!”  
  
The Aussie hit the ground first, smacking his head into the dirt hard enough to make his ears ring, then was crushed by the dual weight of the goblin and the biker. The goblin herself let out a choked cry, arms flailing wide as she was sandwiched.  
  
Rocket immediately stands up, hand on his neck as he coughs. “Nilas, pin that bitch down!”  
  
Said man groaned weakly, coughing as he tried to get the air back into his lungs. The nude shortstack splayed out on his chest and stomach doing the same. He tried to do as the man asked, but his arms could barely wrap around her at the current moment, let alone pin her down. “W-why?”  
  
“We’re going to knock her out and be done with this nonsense!”  
  
“I meant-” Nilas spat out, still wheezing. “Why… did you do that. Fuck.”  
  
Still, the biker was right. They needed to leave before things got worse. Placing his hands on the goblin’s hips, and trying to ignore the softness of her, the alluring smell or the tightness in his hands that her rear was pressed against, he made an apologetic sound and shoved her off him. Staggering to his feet, hunched over in pain, he staggered towards the bike. “Let’s just go.”  
  
“Fine.” Rocket replied, cracking his neck. Shuffling over to the bike, he got on, turning around. “Let's go.”  
  
The two become aware of a quiet sniffling sound, growing louder as it grew into sobs. The goblin lay on her side, hands cupping her bruised bosom, crying. “I-I just wanted babiiiiiiiiiiiies!~” She wailed.  
  
Looking extremely uncomfortable and guilty, the Australian forced himself to look away. “Come on…” He said weakly. “She’ll be fine I’m sure.”  
  
“Hng!” Rocket groaned, clutching his chest. Crying women- his one weakness! “Not looking,” he sang, starting to speed off. “Nope nope nope!”


	7. Chapter 7

Juyo and Booker cowered in the ruined house, both sitting on opposite sides of the closed, rotten door. The former was forcing himself to take deep, slow, and quiet breaths as he pressed a hand over his pounding heart. The latter trying to make himself as small as possible pressing against the ruined wall, breathing slowly and shallowly.  
  
The heady smell of musk was starting to become overwhelming like a thick miasma had spread over them. For a few agonising minutes, the only sounds were that of their quivering breaths, until the unmistakable sound of hooves against stone echoed from down the street.  
  
After gulping, Juyo’s curiosity briefly overcame his fear and he dared to steal a glance at whatever monster was passing by. He almost immediately regretted it.  
  
The minotaur stomped through the debris, outright crushing any stray wood or stones beneath its hooves. Every muscle on its body was oversized almost to the point of ludicrousness, though it wasn’t so funny when Juyo just knew it’d pop his head like a grape if given the chance. However, something was clearly wrong with it. Its leathery red hide was covered in wounds, slashes that ran along its limbs and sides. Whatever it’d been fighting must’ve been trying to get at its tendons. Its nose was a bloody, pulped mess, little more than an angry crimson waterfall.  
  
It snarled, wiping at its nose and immediately roaring in agony, nearly deafening the two of them. Before Juyo looked away, his gaze fell downward, noticing that all it was wearing was a loincloth… which barely covered a massive dick that flopped with every sway of its immense bulk.  
  
_Wonderful, another rape monster_ , Juyo groaned, slowly sliding back down and out of sight. It was almost amusing: he’d always imagined he’d be ecstatic to finally meet a mythological beast in the flesh, but here he was cowering in fear of it. As was Booker, who tensed in fear whenever the other man made even the slightest of movements.  
  
The beast radiated sheer power, a sensation that Juyo could only describe as primal fear. This was something that a normal human simply could not kill alone. All they could do was hide, like prey.  
  
Suddenly the minotaur pounded the earth, the force of which bounced Juyo and Booker in the air, and, with a tremendous roar, charged at the house right beside theirs. The monster was caught in a fit of rage, ripping the stonework building into pieces with its bare hands and screaming all the while. All the two men could do was sit, paralysed by fear as they listened to the destruction.  
  
Eventually, the minotaur must’ve grown tired, since it ceased its mindless rampage and stalked off. The thudding of its footsteps slowly faded in the direction it had previously come until all that was left was Juyo and Booker’s frantic breathing.  
  
Seconds stretched into minutes until Juyo couldn’t take it anymore. “Leaving?” he whispered.  
  
“If you want to be the first to move.” Booker responded in a hushed tone, still pressed against the wall. He didn’t want to leave, only to find the Minotaur was still in eye or hear shot of them.  
  
“I doubt that thing is an ambush predator,” Juyo sighed, slowly edging his way up to peek once more outside. “I don’t see anything and I can’t hear it. We should go, but stick to the shadows.”  
  
“Okay.” Booker slowly turned to peek over the wall and saw the destruction that the minotaur had caused. The already ruined section of town looked even worse, with previously standing walls knocked over and chunks of stone littering the area. “Jesus Christ…” He muttered under his breath.  
  
“How many of those things are there?” Juyo asked quietly as the two slowly made their way through the streets.  
  
“Hundreds, maybe thousands” Booker responded, dread creeping into his voice. They’re a species, not a few individuals, so a lot.”  
  
“... Fuck,” Juyo breathed. It was all he could really say about their current predicament.  
  
“Yeah… I’m only now realising how apt that is.” He knew they were tough in the game, but it was one thing to read that you were fighting an eight-foot tall bull man made out of pure muscle and another to see one stomping around in the flesh. “There’s a reason minotaurs are the go-to comparisons of strength cause oxen and horses got nothing on them.”  
  
“... We can’t afford to keep dicking around like this,” Juyo eventually said, expression growing dour. “Those things will fucking kill all of us.”  
  
“I know.” Booker replied, warily watching the town as they moved. “That’s why we need to train once we have something resembling a camp set up. We got a leg up on with bending, but it won’t do us any good if we starve to death.” He glanced back, fearful that the minotaur would suddenly reappear out of nowhere, despite the fact that the smell had grown weaker.  
  
“We’ll discuss it with the other two once we get back,” Juyo said. “For now, we need to leave. Coming here was a mistake.”  
  
“Agreed.”  
  
The two of them slowly made their way through the ruined streets, until they reached the edge of the town and wandered into the forest. In only a few moments they found themselves back at camp.  
  
\---  
  
Arriving at the camp, it became obvious that the other duo had returned first. The two were sat on the dirt, both looking a little awkward and out of sorts. Nilas lifted his head at the sounds of movement and raised his hand in greeting. “Ey.”  
  
Rocket was notably standing a fair ways away from the camp. His back to Nilas. He didn’t give the group much more than an acknowledging glance before returning his gaze to the wasteland stretching out before them, and Booker immediately made for his own little corner of the camp away from the group, seemingly needing a moment to recollect himself.  
  
“Hey.” Juyo returned the greeting, relieved to be far away from the town ruins. “We almost ran into a minotaur.”  
  
“Shit. You’re joking.” The young man said, looking wary. “Where was it?”  
  
“I wish I was joking, but I’m not.” Juyo responded, features contorting into a grimace. “It was stomping around the town ruins.”  
  
“The ruins? Was that ever in the game? I… don’t think it was.” Nilas pressed his lips together. “Which means things can probably show up anywhere. Makes sense, but fuck.”  
  
“I think Amily mentioned having to fend off minotaurs that came down the mountain in search of food and victims.” Booker absentmindedly interjected, still processing the fact that he’d been only a few yards away from a rampaging minotaur. It was a close encounter that was sticking with him. “Makes sense since it seems like most villages were in the forest or by the lakeside, rather than on the mountain.”  
  
“‘Fuck’ is right,” Juyo sighed, flopping down on the ground. “Shit was that terrifying. Fucking thing casually crushed stone beneath its hooves.”  
  
It looked like the Australian was trying to imagine the idea, when he’s eyes suddenly widened. “Oh shit, what about the little mouse girl? If that thing was around there…”  
  
“... Come to think of it, that minotaur looked like someone gave it hell,” Juyo mused. “It was all cut up and its nose was slashed. Half the time it felt like the thing was stepping blindly around and it was pissed. Maybe that mouse girl, Amily, was it? Maybe she did that?”  
  
Nilas stroked his beard. “Maybe. Though, we-” He glanced towards Rocket, “ran into a goblin that seemed to be running away from something pretty desperately. Didn’t even have those poisons. Could have been her?” Then he thought of just how the short woman had acted and made a face. “Then again, maybe not.”  
  
“Goblins? What’s their deal in this world?” Juyo asked. “Are they… uh, demonic at all?”  
  
“Not from what I remember,” Nilas stated, looking uncertain. “And from the one, we met. She was, uh, pretty slutty though. It was like a curse or something? The demons fucked them hard though, and not in any good ways…”  
  
“That seems like a running theme around these parts,” Juyo sighed. “Well, safe to say that Booker and I found jack shit that was useful in the ruins. I’m guessing the same for you two?”  
  
“...We found a slutty goblin?” The shorter man chuckled awkwardly. Then he suddenly remembered something, reaching into his pocket. “Oh! And we found this.” He pulled out the horse dong-shaped phial and held it up. “Might be worth something. I remember you could sell this stuff.”  
  
Booker glanced up and chuckled. “Heh, I don’t remember them being described as dick shaped. Guess that’s to get some brand recognition.”  
  
Juyo was prepared to give the phial an unimpressed look, but the more he looked at it the more ludicrous he found it. Eventually, he let out a small snicker. “Ha, eh, what does that do?” he asked. “Give you a horse dick?”  
  
“Yup.” Nilas’ lips twitched as he fought to keep a straight face. “Among other things.”  
  
“Pfff!” Juyo snorted. “Fuckin’ porn setting,” he chuckled. For a few moments, the tension had left him thanks to the sheer absurdity.  
  
Nilas chuckled as well, idly sloshing the phial around for amusement. But, the more he looked at it the slower he got; Realisation dawning on him. “Dude… I’m holding an actual magic potion… Like, fantasy shit.”  
  
“... Huh.” Juyo’s widened when he actually thought about it. “Damn, that’s weird to think about. Though… honestly, it’s a little disappointing that all it does is give you horse dick and whatever. Still insane, but, I dunno, feels like a waste.”  
  
“Eeeeeeeh.” Nilas tilted his head. “Still pretty crazy. And it can just make you stronger as well, or other stuff. Only thing is, it’s random. And it’s just one. Plenty of other types out there.” The young man slipped the phial back into his pocket.  
  
“Talk about a roll of the dice,” Juyo said. “Well, it’s gotta be worth something, that’s for sure. So… what now?”  
  
Nilas shrugged at that, hunkering down slightly. “Not a clue. It just feels like we’re… kind of drifting around. I’m shit with stuff like that…”  
  
A scoff came from Rocket’s direction as the Biker approached the duo. “No shit. Spent the day putzing around for fuckin’ nothing at all.” He looked towards Booker for a moment before continuing. “And already one of you is pissing yourself when nothing even happened.” He sounded rather irritated as he crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
“Well excuse me for being scared of an eight-foot tall rape machine made of pure muscle and rage.” Booker muttered under his breath.  
  
“Look, man, not all of us are exactly used to this sort of thing,” Juyo pointed out. “We may just be a bunch of civvies, but how much can you actually prepare yourself for a world full of rape demons?”  
  
“Rape everythings.” Nilas added in, looking unimpressed by Rocket. “Plants, animals, minotaurs. You played the game, you should know what those things can do.”  
  
Rocket glanced between the three with a look of naked disdain on his face before he scoffed again. “Whatever. It’s getting dark, I’ll take first watch, doubt any of you could handle having to stay up past your bedtime for very long.” At that the Biker sauntered off towards his bike, leant against it with his back to the group, scanning the area around them dutifully as he rested a hand on the full-face helmet handing off the bike’s handlebars.  
  
Juyo frowned, torn between a desire to mend fences and the clear unspoken message by Rocket to leave him alone. Eventually, he decided leaving him alone for now would be the best. It was no use talking to people when they were riled up, he’d learned a while ago. Perhaps in the morning, Rocket will have calmed down enough for them to communicate better.  
  
Booker was beginning to get completely fed up with the biker’s piss poor attitude. He thought they had come to some sort of an understanding before, but it was beginning to feel like that was a momentary truce. He was willing to give Rocket the benefit of the doubt though, as much as he didn’t want to, thinking that maybe the biker was just really bad at handling stress and lashing out. It didn’t make his behaviour any better but it made it understandable… assuming that was the case.  
  
Nilas scoffed quietly at the biker’s attitude, not even bothering to reply; As tempting as it might be. It was getting dark, and he was pretty exhausted. And it was going to take a while before he would fall asleep, thanks to the hard ground. He laid back and went about getting comfortable.  
  
\---  
  
Juyo awoke to the sound of slamming. In a frenzy, he sat up with eyes wide and frantically looking around. “What’s going on?” he spoke up, spotting Rocket furiously shoving his stuff into his saddlebags. “Dude, are we under attack?!”  
  
“No thanks to you useless shitstains, no.” He shot back at the bearded waterbender venomously as he continued to loudly gather up things and toss them into his bike’s saddlebags.  
  
“Okay, just, hang on,” Juyo sputtered, groggily forcing himself to stand up “What’s wrong?”  
  
On the ground, Nilas stirred slowly; Quietly groaning as he squeezed his eyes shut tighter and shifted around. He was waking, but slowly.  
  
“One job,” the soldier started, his voice little more than a low growl. “ _One. Fucking. Job_. That’s all I gave you, something so piss-easy that a fucking lobotomized chimp could have done it. But you three?” He motioned towards Juyo, Nilas, and the still sleeping Booker. “So completely fucking green that you couldn’t handle fucking night watch duty. In the middle of confirmed enemy territory,  _after our teams had been attacked separately before going to sleep!_ ”  
  
Nilas, pushing himself upright, and still looking scattered and confused, spoke loudly. “What? Did you wake one of us? You never said anything.”  
  
Rocket angrily pointed towards Booker, who was still somehow obliviously sleeping through all the ruckus. “Piss-pants McFatass over there relieved me after my watch was done. I made it abundantly fucking clear that he was to wake one of you two losers when he did his couple hours of watch.” He threw his arms out wide dramatically as he continued. “And yet I wake up with good ‘ol mister demon sun in the sky up there smiling down on me to find that fucking  _everyone_  is sound asleep with nary a care in the world!  _Like we weren’t all just fucking attacked or nearly got raped by a minotaur the previous night!_ ”  
  
Juyo opened his mouth and raised a hand, but then shrank back. Rocket had a point. Juyo hated it, but Rocket had a point. “Y-You’re right, that shouldn’t have happened,” Juyo weakly replied. “But… nothing attacked us. By some miracle, but…” He trailed off, unsure and already exhausted.  
  
The trained army biker couldn’t have had more than an inch on Juyo, but when he stepped up towards the bearded bender, he seemed to twice Booker’s size. “Not. Fucking. Good. Enough. Boyo.” He stood silently in front of Juyo for a few moments, glaring at him with harsh eyes before wheeling around and moving back to his bike, scooping up his camping bowl as he passed the campfire. “I’ve thought from the beginning that you three were just a liability, and with this shitshow that’s been confirmed beyond any shadow of a doubt.”  
  
After tossing the bowl into his bike’s saddlebags he grabbed his helmet, slid it over his head and kicked his leg over it. “You’re all a bunch of useless civvies that're just going to get me killed, or raped, or turned into a Succubi’s fucked-up herm catboy fucktoy or whatever the fuck happens in this fucked-up world!” He stated, motioning wildly around him at random. “I’m not going to hang around here trying to babysit a bunch of fucking crybabies-” He made a harsh gesture towards Booker. “-that can’t handle making sure none of us get jumped by a pack of minotaurs at night.”  
  
“W-Wait, hang on a sec!” Juyo shouted, panic coming with realisation. “The four of us are all we have! Going off on your own can’t be the solution here!”  
  
A few moments of tenable silence passed as Rocket stared at Juyo through his helm’s darkened visor, then he spared a glance at a stunned and confused Nilas, then his gaze settled on Booker for a beat longer. “Good luck,” he started as he lifted his foot up and over the kick-starter of his motorcycle. “You whiny little fucks are gonna need it.”  
  
The engine roared to life with a single kick, and just like that Rocket was rapidly moving away from the camp for a few moments before the sound of the bike’s engine suddenly cut off, signalling his departure from the group with nary a hint of his intended destination.  
  
As the biker drove off Booker slowly opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around the camp and the sight of Rocket disappearing into the wasteland. He inhaled sharply and clicked his tongue. “Well fuck.”  
  
“No shit,” Juyo growled, glaring down at him. “Dude, I get it, we’re having a rough go at it, but  _falling asleep_  on your watch? What the hell?!”  
  
Booker raised his hands and leant back. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just nodded off, I’m sorry! I mean I didn’t even have any way to tell time, so maybe I stayed up longer than I should have.” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”  
  
“Just…” Juyo groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We’ve lost our only survival expert. And he took all the food with him.”  
  
“What a piece of shit.” Nilas stated, rubbing his eyes. “Gotta love that ‘hoorah’ attitude, right.”  
  
“Again, sorry.” Booker mumbled, feeling like shit. “It’s not that I don’t take the situation seriously. It’s just… I fell asleep.”  
  
Juyo stared off into the distance, where Rocket had vanished. His hands were balled into fists before he shook his head and loosened them. He turned away from the dissipating dust cloud and stepped over to the creek.  
  
“It’s disheartening,” he started to say, concentrating on the meagre stream of water and began to gently tug at it with his will. “But we can’t afford to waste time on this. Asshole that he was, he had a point: as things stand, we’re not gonna survive. Every minute we’re not trying to improve our situation is another minute we go without food, shelter, anything. I can’t stand just sitting here, doing nothing.”  
  
“Well, you got a point.” Booker responded, pulling himself to his feet and dusting himself off. “We can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves… as tempting as that is. Shame that the survival expert left though.” He was struck by a sudden realisation. “And our human torch.” He looked to Juyo and Nilas. “Do either of you guys know how to start a fire?”  
  
Nilas blinked for a moment, obviously thinking. “Uh… I’ve watched a bunch of videos on how to do it. Might take a bit to do in practice, but at least I know the idea…” Even saying it, he didn’t look so sure. He stood up and stretched. “But hey, I know there’s a farm around the lake somewhere. If we go looking, we might be able to find help.”  
  
Juyo nodded. “I like it,” he said as a thin tendril of water snaked its way to his fingertips. With a pull, it crawled into his palm and became a puddle, which he greedily slurped up. “We might be able to find more crabs out there, too. Let’s head back there, and not let up until we make real progress. Sound gucci to you guys?”  
  
“Works for me.” Booker nodded in agreement. “Maybe if we find the farm they’d let us in. I’d take being a farmhand over living in the wasteland.”  
  
“Sounds… gucci?” Nilas replied in confusion agreement.  
  
“Means ‘good’, more or less,” Juyo shrugged. “Just a goofy word I like to say.”  
  
“I kind of figured that, but isn’t that also the name of some brand of handbags or something?” Booker asked aloud, more musing than searching for any real answer. “I know I’ve definitely heard the word before.”  
  
“Yeah, I guess.” Again, Juyo shrugged. “Don’t really care about the brand, it’s just fun to say. Gucci. Gooch-ee.”  
  
The inane conversation continued as the trio walked off to the lake, the rising sun guiding the way. Juyo did glance back, but when all he saw a barren wasteland, he shook his head and kept walking, doing his best to not let the severity of their current situation get the best of him, the other two doing much the same as they wearily pressed on.


	8. Chapter 8

The three dimensionally-displaced travellers quickly came back to the shores of the lake thanks to the strange, otherworldly physics of the dimension. Once more, they began their search for any kind of food and resources, though the former was admittedly higher in their priorities at the moment.  
  
“I still can’t believe he just… drove off.” Booker commented as he turned over another rock on the beach. He had hoped to find some crabs hiding along the shore like they did the previous day, but he was having no such luck.  
  
“And took pretty much everything with him. I reckon he wasn’t just mad cause of last night.” Nilas said, scuffing the sand with his shoes. Well, they were his now that the biker had fucked off. “That’s pretty fucking shady, no matter how angry you are.”  
  
“It’s pretty much leaving us for dead.” Booker replied, shaking his head and throwing a stone out onto the water in frustration.  
  
“Dude,” Juyo hissed, who’d been silently watching the lake until then. “C’mon, isn't there supposed to be monsters in there?”  
  
Nilas, who had reacted similarly to Booker’s actions, nodded. “Yeah. I’ve already run into a slime around here. Don’t get too close.”  
  
“That’s the plan,” Juyo sighed, taking his hands out of his pockets. He noticed a small puddle on the beach, separate from the larger body of water, and stopped at it. After a moment of hesitation, he splayed a hand out and tugged at the puddle, slowly drawing a tendril upward. It was small, barely the length of his hand, but he was able to will it closer to his fingertips and maintain its cohesion.  
  
He considered trying to freeze it into a knife but decided against it since he wasn’t too confident in his control yet. At least at it was now, he could potentially splash it the face of something that came after them, gaining precious seconds of running time.  
  
“I’ll keep watch of the lake,” he told them. “One of you should check for food while the other keeps an eye on the land for monsters. That way we don’t all tunnel vision on one thing.”  
  
“Sounds like a plan.” Booker nodded in agreement, stomping on the ground and causing a rock to jerk up into his hand. It was an awkward catch, the rock’s movement unnatural, but he was quite proud that it had actually worked. “I’ll watch the forest and yell if I see anything.”  
  
Nilas watched the other two, unable to stop a small frown. Juyo was obviously already getting better at his bending, and Booker’s was dangerous or useful even when basic. And what could he do? Make a bit of a small breeze in one specific area. Stepping away from the other two, the shorter man turned to look further down the beach; Trying to feel the air around him as he eyed the area.  
  
Something a little further down, a discolouration of the sand, caught his attention and he began to walk towards it. Moving closer, he began to notice gouges in the sand, places where it had been kicked up or shuffled around. He paused when he came to a footstep. One of an obvious shoe print. Someone had been there. Reaching the discolouration, Nilas blinked. It was green, and vaguely opaque. It reminded him of a jellyfish he had seen at the beach once, only much larger and more deflated. “Uh, you guys might want to see this.”  
  
Booker turned slightly to face Nilas. “What is it?” Juyo glanced in Nilas’s direction, adjusting his glasses with his free hand.  
  
“Kinda reminds me of ectoplasm,” the waterbender noted.  
  
“What, you’ve seen ectoplasm?” Booker sarcastically remarked. “I was gonna say… more like Jell-O that’s been out in the sun too long or gone mouldy.”  
  
Juyo fought the urge to roll his eyes. “No, not in real life,” he grunted. “But like in movies and shit. Ghostbusters, Danny Phantom, that kind of stuff. No clue what it could actually be, though.”  
  
“Maybe it’s slime, I mean goo girls and such live in the lake.” Booker suggested, glancing towards the water for any signs of life beneath the surface. “It seems like someone else was here and might have caught their attention.” He looked at the faint trail of slime covered footprints leading from the beach into the forest. “Though it seems our mystery person managed to escape them.”  
  
“They must be human.” Nilas said, though after a brief moment of thought added, “Or at least close enough if they’re wearing shoes. You don’t reckon it was the biker, right? I don’t see any tire tracks.”  
  
“I imagine there would’ve been scorch marks if that was the case,” Juyo supplied, walking over to the site to get a closer look. “How tough are… goo girls?”  
  
“Uh…” The Australian thought for a moment. “They were an early game enemy if I remember right. So, not very tough in relation to other things here? Really no clue what that would be against us, though. They can move pretty quickly for a pile of magic goo, though.” He remembered his desperate sprint away from the one the other day.  
  
Juyo hummed, rubbing his bearded chin. “I wonder if I could actually bend them…” he mused, looking back toward the lake. “Anyway, if there’s nothing here, we should keep moving.”  
  
“Maybe, though who knows.” Booker shrugged his shoulders. “You can bend bodily fluids, so maybe.”  
  
At that moment, Nilas stomach growled, reminding him how little they’d had to eat since they’d arrived. “It doesn’t matter right now, I don’t think. We need food. Let’s keep looking.”  
  
\---  
  
The search moved further down the beach, the trio coming across nothing of note. Just sand, sand, more sand and a bit of driftwood. There was a moment where Nilas thought he spotted a small island barely visible in the fog further out on the lake. But, when he looked back it was gone.  
  
Things were starting to feel a little dire, each of the men starting to feel the hunger set back in. Spread out across the sand, leaving no stone unturned, it was some time later when something else of interest seemed to pop into view.  
  
A single large tree, sitting a short distance off the sand, rose up into the sky. Thick, green leaves hung from its branches. Nilas began to move towards it, hoping it might bear fruit when he spotted it. Something sticking out of the trunk. A flash of memory jumped back to him, and he grinned. “Guys! I found something again!”  
  
As he ran for the tree, Juyo tentatively looked away from the lake, but once he saw the sword he did a double-take and bolted after Nilas. The water splashed to the ground, all of the focus he’d been maintaining completely lost.  
  
Booker soon followed, excitement and hope filling him. With the sword, they actually stood a chance to fight off monsters with what amounted to a holy weapon.  
  
“Holy shit, an actual sword?!” Juyo exclaimed, looking over the surprisingly-pristine weapon embedded into the tree. “This is great!”  
  
“Pull it out!” Booker shouted to Nilas.  
  
Nilas skidded to a halt before the sword. Now that he was closer, he realised that more than half of the blade was buried into the body of the tree. Oh geez. He wasn’t sure he could pull it out, no matter how hard he tried. Still, no way of knowing unless he tried.  
  
Wrapping his hands around the hilt, the blond braced a foot against thee tree and pulled. Arms and back straining, leg pushing as hard as it could, hands chafing on the hilt as they turned white from the tightness of his grip. Yet it didn’t even budge. Nilas stopped, panting and wincing as the base of his back twinged. “Fuck.”  
  
Juyo’s expression slowly fell. “You gotta be kidding me…” he groaned, rubbing his face.  
  
Nilas stepped away, looking miffed. “Anyone else want a go? This sword is… well, it was one of the best weapons in the game.” The champion had made it seem so easy. What the fuck.  
  
“Well looks like we gotta take turns trying to pull the sword from the stone, or rather tree.” Booker joked as he stepped forward, inwardly hoping that he could actually pull it free. “Let’s see if I have better luck.”  
  
He wrapped his hands around the hilt and gave it an experimental tug. It was firmly embedded into the trunk of the tree, though he already knew that. Tightening his grip, he pressed a foot against the base of the tree and pulled with all his might.  
  
It didn’t even budge.  
  
He kept it up for a few moments more, before stopping and letting go. “Okay, it’s not working for me. Juyo, you give it a go and if it doesn’t work, then uh, maybe we should think about cutting it out of the tree.”  
  
“Aight,” Juyo replied as he stepped up for his turn. He wasn’t too hopeful of his chances after seeing the other two fail, but trying couldn’t hurt. Tried, he did. Failed, he did. “Yeahhhh, no dice.”  
  
“Okay…” Booker began, hand on his chin as he eyed up the tree. “What are our odds of carving it out of the tree? I give it about an unfeasible at the moment.”  
  
“With what?” Nilas asked blankly.  
  
“Well I was thinking with bending, like some water blade or rocks, but obviously not now. Hence the unfeasible at the moment.” Booker replied, frowning slightly. “I basically just suggested an idea and then immediately shot it down myself.”  
  
“...Right.” Nilas said, before turning to head back towards the beach. He was growing hungrier, and it was beginning to bring his mood down. “Guess we’ll come back later.”  
  
Also growing frustrated, Juyo nodded in agreement. “Yeah, can’t afford to waste time.” He cast one last forlorn glance at the sword that was  _ _right there__ , then walked away.  
  
Booker’s gaze lingered on the blade for a moment longer before he sighed and followed suit. He just hoped they would be able to find it again.  
  
\---  
  
The search was going just a poorly after the encounter with the sword, as before it. Frustration was starting to grow. They’d seen very little, and what few things they had, had escaped before they could catch them. Nilas in particular was getting sick of it. They’d been trying for hours now, and had nothing to show for it. He dropped down onto the sand, lying on his back and groaning up at the sky.  
  
Booker felt as exhausted as Nilas, but didn’t want to lay down on the sand. He wasn’t sure if there wasn’t anything around that might pounce on them, but more importantly, he didn’t want his only set of clothing covered in wet sand.  
  
Nilas didn’t want to move. This whole situation sucked, even as cool as some parts of it were. He closed his eyes, and just took a moment to lay there.  
  
The sound of gentle scratching near his head started up, drawing the young man’s attention. Slumping his head in its direction, he froze. A large crab sat about a metre from him, its claws digging into the sand as it scooped something into its mouth. Their eyes met, and the crustacean seemed to freeze as well. One final slow scoop reached its mouth, before the crab began to slowly shuffle away.  
  
“Oh no you don’t.” Nilas growled, rolling over onto his knees as the crab took off. It was a fast little bastard, its legs powering as it shot down the beach towards the water of the lake. The Australian went after it on all fours, hands scrabbling as he lashed out to try and grab it. Fuck, how was it so agile?  
  
All his attention focused on the crab as his stomach roared at him to get it something to eat. Anything. With a triumphant shout, Nilas dove for it. His fingers brushed its back, before coming down with a wet splat. He landed just in the water, unable to do anything but watch as the crab disappeared into the next wave. He shuffled forward, hand groping in the water. “Oh come on! Fuck you, you stupid crab!”  
  
He punched the water in frustration, then blinked when he couldn’t pull his hand back out of it. “Uh.”  
  
He went to pull his hand back and found it seemed to be stuck in something. It was a familiar sensation. “Oh… oh shit.”  
  
Turning his head, sure enough, there was a red glow. And an oddly beating heart. And a worryingly familiar blue face rising from the water, smiling. “G-guys…”  
  
“Oh,” Juyo dumbly said, eyes bulging at the impossible being that appeared before them. “Oh,  _shit_.”  
  
Booker could only stare in shock as he watched the goo girl slowly take form. It was truly alien to anything he’d seen before, his mind racing to make any sort of comparison to help ground what he was seeing.  
  
The goo girl from the previous day rolled forward at the same time it rose from the water, bringing Nilas with it as the sucking sensation in his hand spread upwards. He flailed, trying to pull free. But this time, it had a far better grip on him. “Shit, shit! Little help!”  
  
“F-Fuck, coming!” Juyo sprinted to Nilas, desperately latching onto him and pulling back. “Booker,  _help_!”  
  
“R-Right!” Booker rushed forward, Juyo’s shouting shaking him from his shock. He grabbed onto Nilas as well and pulled, trying to free him from the slime’s grip.  
  
The goo girl’s face became strained as her catch became just that much more uncooperative, confusion plain on her otherworldly yet human features. Blue tendrils spread from those grasping Nilas, groping for Juyo and Booker.  
  
Nilas jerked and twitched as goo caught his feet and began to climb upward. A sharp twitch of his legs pulled his feet free from the loose shoes, but it was a temporary victory. By now, even with the tugging from the others, the goo girl had climbed as far as the man’s biceps as she simply allowed herself to be dragged along. Her face peered closely at Nilas for a moment before leaning in to try and kiss him, prompting him to awkwardly lean back as it got closer. That small smile had returned, and even with the terrifying situation, the girl’s victim couldn’t see anything but a friendly innocence in her opaque eyes.  
  
Then a tendril grabbed one of his bare feet, the cool liquid making him yelp and struggle harder. “Fuck! Let me go!”  
  
Juyo cursed, eyes frantically darting over the goo girl’s body as he desperately tugged on Nilas. In a moment of clarity, he could see the steady undulation of liquid within her barely-coherent frame, the very surface of her ‘skin’ a tenuous membrane. He struggled to calm his breath, imagining the creek he’d found.  
  
It had to work.  
  
“Booker, keep him locked in place,” Juyo stated, still hanging on. “I’m gonna let go and bend her.”  
  
“Okay!” Booker shouted as he tightened his grip on Nilas, finding his own arms enveloped by the slime. It was a strange sensation, cool and thick like some syrup running up his skin.  
  
Persistent, the alien woman had ignored Nilas’ attempts to keep away. Her cool, gel-like lips pressed against his face as he turned his head away; Smearing a cool liquid against his cheek. It would have been cute in any other situation. But the cool slime was creeping further along his body, and he was worried what might happen if it covered him totally. He didn’t remember much of the creatures from the game, which scared him.  
  
Juyo let go right before the tendrils could reach him, backing off a step to focus. He took a couple deep breaths before settling into a waterbending stance, raising splayed hands toward the goo girl. He could feel the liquid, water and… something else, within her. He raised his hands… and then pushed down and away. The image of receding tides, of a creek flowing downhill, were fixed in his mind.  
  
After all, water was supposed to go downhill. He was only encouraging the process.  
  
The effect was… negligible, but still evident. The tendrils nearest him shimmered and retreated for a moment. Then they froze, as the goo girl ceased her ministrations on Nilas. Her constantly-reforming face tilted to the side, opaque eyes wide with bafflement.  
  
“Are you trying to bend her?!” Booker yelled, the slime momentarily stopping and even receding from his arm. He thought he felt her hold on Nilas loosen a bit. “Because I don’t know if it’s working or not but keep trying!”  
  
Nilas jerked his foot and was surprised as it suddenly slipped free of the now largely immobile goo. His eyes widened, and he yanked his arms this time; Feeling them slide free slightly. “Yeah! Hold her still! And pull me!”  
  
Juyo silently continued to push at the goo girl, emboldened by what little success he’d managed. At this rate, he was confident Booker would be able to pull Nilas out while he kept the slime occupied.  
  
Emboldened by the slime’s grip faltering, and water bending seeming to work, Booker began stepping back with Nilas in his grip. Before the slime’s hold was unyielding but now he was slowly but surely being pulled from her gelatinous clutches.  
  
The goo-girl squirmed and shook slightly, her insides rippling as she tried to move. As her new friend slipped further and further out of her grasp, she started to pout.  
  
Then, with a slick popping noise, Nilas was pulled free.  
  
Booker stumbled backwards, quickly loosing his footing and landing flat on his ass a few feet away from the slime girl. Nilas was unfortunate enough to get dragged down with him, and the two of them began scrambling backwards away from her.  
  
Juyo meanwhile took another step back, his gaze fixed on the goo girl and keeping stance. He was taking no chances with this thing, regardless of how cute it appeared to be.  
  
Shimmering lightly, the gooey woman tried to move forward again. Finding it still impossible, she seemed to mime a huff and suddenly sunk downwards into a quivering puddle. Only the top half of her head remained poking out of it, giving the three men what could only be described as puppy-dog eyes.  
  
Juyo’s eyes narrowed, his hands lowering a smidge. “Are you okay, Nilas?” he asked.  
  
Panting, and still running on adrenaline from his near… something experience, the man in question nodded a touch frantically; His eyes locked on the puddle. “Uh yeah, I’m fine. Just a little shaky. That’s- She’s the one I ran into the other day. Uh, I think. Looks the same, at least.”  
  
“Gotcha,” Juyo replied. “She’s not a demon, is she?”  
  
“No, I don’t believe so.” Booker slowly answered as he pushed himself up to his feet. His arms were still slick from the slime, leaving them a touch blue. “Demons are very specific beings, and to answer the follow-up question I’m sure you’re going to ask, I don’t know if she’s corrupted or not… And yes, those are different things.”  
  
As he spoke he tried shaking the slime off, but to no avail and found that doing so seemed to summon up sand from the beach. In moments his arms were coated by a layer of sand-encrusted goo.  
  
“Cool,” Juyo nodded, finally easing out of his stance and turning away from the goo girl. An odd sensation tugged at him to look back, prompting his face to scrunch in confusion momentarily. He glanced back the goo girl, still in a pouting puddle, and made eye contact with her. The sensation remained, but nothing else happened. Shaking his head, he looked away and walked to Nilas and Booker. “We need to get moving.”  
  
“Agreed.” Booker muttered, futilely shaking his arms one last time before sighing. “This can not keep happening.” He muttered under his breath.  
  
Nilas watched the goo-girl carefully, noting her rise slightly as Juyo turned away. But she didn’t move, instead pouted for a little longer before perking back up and sliding down into the water once again.  
  
The Australian was happy to note she left the shoes behind. He quickly scurried across the sand to grab them before retreating to the others. “Yeah, uh, let’s go.” He let out a shaky breath, coming down from the adrenaline rush. He swayed slightly, as the hunger and sudden tiredness hit him. “Really need food…”


	9. Chapter 9

Juyo let out a loud groan, rubbing his face. The three had wandered into the forest, in a vain hope to find berries of some sort. The forest itself was actually quite pleasant; lush foliage and outright lovely scenes of woodland played out around them. Unfortunately, a pretty picture did little to appease the harsh pains in his stomach.  
  
Booker had managed to scrape most of the sand and slime off of him, even though the process left his hands slightly stained and jeans dirtier than they had before. It was a minor victory though, not meaning much since he was still half-starving… But still, he was in less discomfort than he was before.  
  
Nilas stumbled along behind, feet squelching in his still slightly damp and gooey shoes. He swayed again slightly, blinking to try and clear the faint tension and fog that was beginning to set in. His stomach twisted, a pang of pain from the hunger gnawing at it. He felt weak, his body a little sluggish. The young man was pretty sure he was starving. It wasn’t a feeling he liked at all. He peered around another tree, not even a flowering plant in sight; Let alone berries. Hope was not something he was feeling currently. “We might be fucked.”  
  
Juyo couldn’t find it in himself to say otherwise. He silently shuffled on, until his eyes wandered over to… a peach? No, not quite. It had small nubs running along its surface, in a pattern that made him think of… whiskers…  
  
He gulped. It had to be one of those transformative foods the others had told him about. Even so, it looked awfully tasty right then. What were whiskers, or a tail, to starvation? Weakly, he began to reach for the fruit…  
  
A faint rustle amongst the foliage caused him to pause, and all of them turned their attention. They held their collective breaths in fear as the rustling only continued to grow, signalling the approach of some forest creature.  
  
Before they could run, a curious figure emerged from the bushes. It was difficult to make out its features, its skin a light green that seemed to blend into the surrounding foliage and a cascading mane of leaf-like hair obscuring much of its body.  
  
The way it moved was strangely alien, a smooth serpentine-like body emerging from a closed plant bud that shuffled along the ground. As it emerged from the bush it appeared as if roots were wriggling beneath the surface, helping to propel it.  
  
As they stared with bated breath, it stopped and slowly turned to face them, revealing more of its features. It was a she, that much was obvious by her feminine face and absolutely gigantic breasts. Each one the size of a small watermelon and jiggling with every movement and breath she took. They were slightly peculiar though, instead of a singular nipple, on each breast she had four several inch long teats.  
  
They could tell all that since she was completely naked. It seemed she didn’t like clothing and had no sense of modesty.  
  
Booker, in particular, had trouble keeping his eyes off anything else.  
  
Her face was quite odd, looking rather fae-like. She lacked any nose, the skin over where it would be was smooth and green, and growing out of her forehead was a short wooden horn. It was wider at the base, and topped with a dual antler crest, looking very much like a beetle’s horn.  
  
She regarded them with surprise, her amethyst eyes slowly looking over each of them, before warmingly smiling at them. “Oh hello, I didn’t see you there.” She gently waved with one of her four arms, the lower two crossed beneath her titanic chest and the other resting against her hip.  
  
Juyo found it difficult not to gawk at the… dryad? Plant woman? Whatever she was. Even after seeing other beings straight out of myth, each time he saw something new it shocked him. Everything about her seemed…  _other_. Despite her more… human assets, or perhaps even because of them, the more he looked at her the more bewildered he found himself.  
  
“Uh,” he blurted, weakly raising a hand. “Hi.”  
  
Nilas, having heard the voices, poked his head out from around a tree to see what was up. “Hey, what’s- Holy hell.” The young man caught sight of the visitor, eyes bouncing over the woman’s body as they tried to figure out what needed ogling more. He flushed slightly, sudden awkwardness reminiscent of yesterday’s filling his chest as he forced himself to focus on her face. Mostly. Even that was extremely odd and kind of jarring, and he stepped out to join the staring; Unsure of how to react. “Yeah, what… what he said.”  
  
It took a few moments for Booker to register that she had spoken and a moment more for his brain to reset. He found himself blushing the more he looked at her, eyes trying to take in every inch of her. Her appearance stirred something in the back of his mind and reminded him of where he was. It was a realm of demons and nightmares, were unspeakable monstrosities rampaged across the land unabated. Where the weak and defenceless were nothing victims and playthroughs to beings incomprehensibly more powerful than they could ever be…  
  
Yet, it was the realm of lust and pleasure, where fantasies and desires could become reality. It was a train of thought he had unknowingly suppressed, having gone unnoticed at the back of his mind. Though hunger gnawed at his stomach, another type of hunger began making itself apparent. It had been days since he last touched himself and the very sight of her was reawakening his ignored desires.  
  
Then he suddenly thought it’d be very rude to assume that she’d be totally willing to fuck him, based solely on the fact she was naked and he was in CoC land… It was probably a safe assumption, but still. “Hello.” He quietly muttered as he waved his hand.  
  
Seeing how the three of them were all openly staring at her to varying degrees, the plant woman didn’t even try to cover herself in shame, but thrust her chest out a bit more, causing her breasts to jiggle. “I take it you all like what you see.” She cooed, winking coyly and giggling to herself.  
  
Juyo wiped his eyes just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things due to hunger. What it  _looked_ like was that some dryad/nymph/entwife was acting uncomfortably like a Bangkok hooker, but that couldn’t have been the case, right?  
  
He regarded her again.  
  
“Of course this is real,” Juyo said with a long-suffering sigh.  
  
“Aw~ You aren’t imagining me.” She shuffled closer towards them, again causing her breasts to jiggle. “You can touch if you want to be sure.”  
  
At that, Juyo snorted. “I’m sorry,” he said, covering his mouth and shaking his head as he giggled. “It’s just when people talk like that, I can’t take them seriously at all.”  
  
Booker resisted the urge to raise his hand and just jump at her offer. He did have to agree with Juyo, she did sound like she was speaking in porn lines.  
  
Nilas glanced at the other two, then back to the plant-woman. He thought for a moment, figuring out how best to ask. Finally, he said, “So… you’re not a demon, are you?”  
  
“No, I’m not one of those filthy creatures.” She shook her head, causing the veritable waterfall of leaf-like wall to dance around her body. “Imps may have nice dicks, but I always feel so dirty and unclean afterwards.”  
  
“...Right.” Nilas glanced at the other two again, feeling a bit weirded out by being the lead in the current conversation. “Do you know what, uh, corruption is?”  
  
She brought one of her upper hands to her chin in thought. “I think I’ve heard of it. I don’t know that much about it, I’m not from around here. Speaking of,” she began, changing the topic, “are any of you adventurers?”  
  
Well, he was warning a sexy plant-woman about the dangers of magic STDs from fucking random demons. Things just kept scaling in weirdness. Nilas coughed lightly. “Well, might want to be careful. Imps and demons can, well, they corrupt you through sex and pretty much turn you into something else.” Then he cocked his head. “And kind of? At the moment not really.”  
  
“I wouldn’t exactly say adventures,” Booker spoke up, finding his voice, “More like a bunch of stranded people. We didn’t exactly come here by choice.”  
  
She hummed and nodded. “I thought so, you look out of place. I kind of stumbled upon here by mistake as well, though not that I mind, mind you.” She threw her upper arms up, gesturing to the forest around them. “I love it here! It’s perfect for someone like me, and I’m sure you'll find it accommodating in time.” She sounded excited about the topic but offered a sympathetic look. “It’s not as scary as it first appears.”  
  
“Dunno about that,” Juyo groaned, idly kicking at the dirt beneath him. Of all the surreal shit… “Considering everything we’ve met so far has tried to rape and slash or kill us. But hey, at least someone’s enjoying it.”  
  
“Yeeeeeah,” Nilas agreed, though he tried to look slightly positive. He did know there were better places out there, but also much worse. “It looks nice, at least. And… someone like you?” The Australian had a good idea what she meant, but he could be wrong and it didn’t hurt to ask.  
  
“Oh, someone who enjoys the pleasures of life.” She seemed reluctant to talk about it as if she was somehow embarrassed by whatever she was referring to… While completely uncaring about her total nudity. “That doesn’t matter though,” she quickly tried to change the topic, “It’s in the past. And if you aren’t adventurers I guess I can understand why you’d be so afraid. I would have been surprised if you actually were adventurers, you don’t look like what I’d expect.”  
  
“Yeah, we’re a pretty ramshackle bunch,” Juyo admitted, shoving his hands in his pockets. He entertained the thought of telling her about their bending, or at least his… but then again, she was a random stranger they’d just ran into, and an odd one at that. And no, that wasn’t even taking into account her appearance. “Speaking of, we’re  _really_ hurting for food right now. You know anywhere we can get some?” He paused, realising his accidental innuendo. “Actual food, that is,” he clarified.  
  
She frowned slightly and her tone turned apologetic. “I don’t have any food on me, though you can probably find fruit and berries around here.” Her upper arms gestured to the forest surrounding them. “I may know where you can find something if you don’t mind getting nipples like mine.” A lower hand brushed pass both sets of teats. “I’m sorry if it’s not much help.”  
  
She glanced off to the side, idly playing with her hair. “It’s selfish of me to ask this, but do any of you think you could do me with a favour? I too have gone hungry in my travels and require some  _special_ nourishment to help re-energize me.” Her elfin face began blushing purple. “I’ll understand if all of you unwilling or unable to, you have your own problems.”  
  
“What kind of favour?” Juyo warily asked while Nilas seemed to be zoned out, likely from hunger pains.  
  
She seemed a bit surprised that she’d have to spell it out for someone. “Oh, it’s a sexual favour. I really need some cum to fill me up.” Her blush turned a slightly darker shade of purple.  
  
Juyo stared at her in bemusement for a few moments before shrugging and burying his face in his hands, otherwise not responding.  
  
Booker glanced between his companions in misery and the exotic fae-like plant girl. It seemed his earlier hopes of getting laid were not misplaced. He was hesitant to outright accept, worrying about how the other two would react to him doing so, but he brushed those concerns aside. He wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass him by.  
  
He slowly raised his hand, getting her attention. “Uh, I think I might be able to help you with that.”  
  
Juyo gave Booker a disbelieving look at that. Which the latter completely ignored, gaze fixated on the plant-girl.  
  
Essy clapped her upper pair of hands in excited, causing her massive breasts to bounce and jiggle. She shuffled towards Booker, who nervously walked forwards to meet her halfway.  
  
He turned back for a moment, unable to look either Juyo or Nilas in the eyes. “Uh, you guys might want to give us a minute. I’d rather you not watch this.”  
  
Juyo groaned, turned and started making his way back the way they’d come. Nilas didn’t seem to notice for a moment but started shuffling after him quickly enough.  
  
Booker was excited but nervous about being alone with the fae-like plant woman. She was strange and he found a few of her features a little off-putting, but her otherworldly beauty made him overlook that.  
  
Whatever concerns and hesitant he harboured melted away as she pressed herself against him. Her arms rubbing his shoulders and chest, and breasts tantalisingly close to his face. That’s when he noticed that a pink mist began to fill the air, smelling like flowers but not overwhelmingly so.  
  
He felt warm, skin flushed, like he had a bit to drink and relaxed.  
  
She giggled at his reaction and gently pulled him fully against her in a hug. The soft skin of her ample bosom pressing against the lower half of his face. “Shh, just relax,” she cooed, gently rubbing his back and shoulders, “just breathe deep, cutie.”  
  
With his mouth slightly covered he breathed deeply through his nose, and feeling the effects of the mist increase. He was surprised that it didn’t irritate him, and with every breath, his blush only deepened. He found himself kissing the flesh right in front of him, as his hands roamed her body for anything to grab onto.  
  
She didn’t have legs, but she still had hips and he tried to pull her even closer.  
  
“You’re so eager~” She loosened her grip and pulled his face back, lifting her breast up with a lower hand. “Why don’t you have a taste?~”  
  
There was a part of his weirded out by her long, thick quad nipples, looking like a pair of udders rather actual breasts. Those thoughts were drowned out however by pure need and want. Without hesitation he latched onto the nearest teat, nearly taking its whole length into his mouth.  
  
In moments, sweet syrupy milk poured into his mouth, vaguely reminding me of melted ice cream. As it washed over his tongue and down his throat, his stomach grumbled, making his hunger known. He sucked harder, taking the rest of her length till his lips were pressed against her breast.  
  
Essy’s moan turned into a long, pleasured ‘moo’ as her arms held him in place and slender fingers ran through his hair. One hand snaked it way down to his crotch, tugging at his belt and pants for a few moments before she stopped and sighed in annoyance. “Darn clothing,” she softly muttered as gently nudged him away.  
  
He wordlessly complained, half-whimpering as was pushed off her teat, milk dripping down his chin.  
  
She held his head, fingers tracing his jawline as she giggled. “I love that you’re enjoying me, but I’m so hungry~ I need my fill first, then you can get yours~” She began undressing him, and he complied, quickly discarding his clothing on the grass beside them.  
  
He was standing there as naked as she was, and the nagging voice of self-consciousness about his figure was silenced as he continued to inhale the aroma. If she thought he was good looking then that’s all he cared about.  
  
She briefly eyed the pile of clothing with bemusement. “I never understood why you mortals wear such constraining things. Oh well,” her hand reached down to grab his half-erect cock, gently stroking it, “we can have fun now~”  
  
Her attention quickly got him fully erect, his member filling her hand and already leaking pre-cum in excitement. He noticed a large pink flower open up on her back, and the forest clearing was truly flooded with the pink mist.  
  
As he inhaled it once more, she abruptly pulled him up with her free hands, her soft green lips meeting his. It didn’t take long before the two of them began making out, her taking the lead and him acting on lust driven instincts. Her tongue explored his mouth, feeling unnaturally soft, a bit ticklish, and tasting slightly of mint.  
  
They slowly parted, her leaf-like tongue running over his lips, and their breathing heavy. Her amethyst eyes stared into his with naked desire, her noseless face flushed in deep purple hues. “I need it so bad~” She breathlessly whined, breasts heaving and jiggling with every movement that she makes. “We can enjoy each other more afterwards~”  
  
A multitude of vine-like tentacles emerged from the flower of her back and snaked their way about him, coiling around his arms, legs, and waist. She slowly lifted him into the air, until his crotch was around face height.  
  
“Aw~ I’m going to hold you to that.” He groaned, instincts screaming at him to touch and taste every inch of her body. He knew he’d enjoy what she was about to do but he couldn’t help but feel denied.  
  
She looked up at him with half-laden eyes and winked. “I’m sure you will~” Then without warning, she planted her mouth on his crotch.  
  
Essy dragged her thin tongue over the length of his manhood, bending about its curve as she licked from base to tip before engulfing it with her lips. Without a moment’s hesitation, she slid down to the hilt, shocking him with the surreal tightness of her throat. Her horn pressed against his stomach, and she tilted him back slightly to get a better angle.  
  
He moaned out in pleasure as he felt the plant cowgirl's throat rippling as if trying to milk his entire length. He wished he could move his arms and grab her head, run his fingers through her soft looking hair, but he couldn’t. Her tentacles had him completely restrained, and all he could do was squirm in her grip.  
  
Essy smiled as she continued to bob her head, slowly at first, but with increasing speed as his moans egg her on. She began humming to herself, starting at the base and continuing up his shaft. Her tongue swirled over his sensitive head, while two of her hands began gently rubbing and caressing his balls.  
  
Another tentacle briefly rubbed itself against her breasts, coating it in her thick sap-like milk, and drifted downwards and out of sight. A moment later, something wet brushed itself against his rear before pressing itself against his ass.  
  
His eyes widened in surprised, and Essy smiled up at him, before abruptly penetrating him. It began gently, slowly working more and more into him, going until she hit his prostate. He groaned in response, involuntarily thrusting himself against her face. It was unlike anything he had experienced before, like a deep pleasure radiating out from within.  
  
His moans only encouraged her further, her movements becoming slightly frantic as she sped up her pace. The tentacle began fucking him harder, matching its rhythm with her mouth, and pushing him over the edge.  
  
She hilted his cock in her mouth as he began to cum, her tongue still dancing along his length. She made a showing of loudly moaning as she gulped down his load, eyes closed as she savoured it. The tentacle slowed somewhat, pounding his ass hard and wriggling against his prostate. Every thrust causing him to whimper and loudly moan, his mind and body overwhelmed by pleasure.  
  
She held him tightly as she continued to milk him for every last drop until she was finally satisfied. Her tentacle pulled free, causing him to weakly moan, and she slid her lips over his manhood one last time. She relinquished it with a wet pop and slowly lowered him to the ground.  
  
His knees nearly buckled, legs shaking, and he was thankful that her tentacles were still supporting him. He leant against her body, inhaling the scent of wildflowers as they held each other. Her arms gently rubbing his body as she happily hummed. Slowly, she uncoiled her tentacles and retracted them back into her body, the flower on her back closing up as well.  
  
The mist that once dominated the air steadily dissipated, though the scent of it still lingered.  
  
“That… was amazing.” He said as he pressed his face against her breasts, his voice slightly muffled. “Like… holy shit.”  
  
She hugged him tightly. “Thank you  _so_ much for helping a girl out. That was very fun.”  
  
“Yeah… it was.” He half-giggled, enjoying the afterglow. They held each other for a few moments in silence, until it was interrupted by Booker’s stomach growling. He knew he was hungry, but he hadn’t realised how starved he truly was.  
  
His blush deepened as it dawned on him that the milk he drank had momentarily sated his hunger. He hadn’t thought about it like that, as… breastfeeding. In fact, that was probably the fullest he had been since arriving there.  
  
Something he found slightly shameful, but…  
  
“Hey uh, do you mind if I um…” He trailed off, feeling slightly embarrassed to ask what he was about to ask.  
  
“Yes?~” Essy tilted his head up and smiled down at him.  
  
“Do you mind if I…” He averted his gaze and took a breath, inhaling her scent once more, “suck on um, your tit and drink a bit more milk? It’s the most I’ve had to eat in days.”  
  
“Of course, I’ll be happy to return the favour.” She lowered his head and mooed as he latched on and began suckling. His hands kneaded her breasts, squeezing the soft flesh and playfully pulling the unattended set of quad-nipples. Her hands reached for his still erect member and a faint pink mist slowly filled the area once more…


	10. Chapter 10

“So, uh,” Juyo started, awkwardly shuffling back into the clearing when the squishy noises and cow-like mooing stopped. “Oh, good, Booker’s happy now.” He looked over at the now thoroughly-satisfied Essy sucking her fingertips. “Cool. Now that you’re, uh, content… Anyway you can show us to food? Or civilisation without demons?”  
  
Nilas’ attention, on the other hand, was focused on the small flailing tentacles that were quickly disappearing into the weird flower-bud on her back. He stared blankly for a moment, before blinking and forcing his attention elsewhere to not think about it too much. Now wasn’t the time. “Anything like that really. I’m fucking starving.” He clutched his aching stomach slightly, which he was sure was now eating itself.  
  
“As I said, I could show you to a grove of fruit bearing trees.” She motioned towards the trees she’d emerged from a few minutes earlier. “If you don’t mind having nipples like mine…” Then an impish grin stretched across her elfin features. “Although, you could take a sample from the tap like the big guy here…” With a wink, she gave one of her titanic mammaries a mighty heft.  
  
“I am full of both shame… and milk…” Booker muttered to nobody in particular as he gave his belly a contented pat and belched quite vulgarly.  
  
“See, there’s one happy customer’s testimony!” The plant woman declared. “I’ve got plenty more to share!  
  
“... What the fuck have our lives become?” Juyo wondered aloud.  
  
Nilas, who looked very conflicted on the matter, glaned at him and shrugged with a small grin. “I dunno. But hey, we can actually literally pull a Captain Kirk now. Kind of something good out of this whole mess.”  
  
Despite himself, Juyo snorted at that. “Fair enough, I guess,” he allowed, setting his hands on his hips. “Well… I guess it’s happening. Feels kinda weird, but… eh, fuck it. I’m not doing a threesome though. You can go first.”  
  
Nilas chuckled a little awkwardly at that, rubbing the side of his neck. “I don’t think it’d count, anyway.” Then before the situation there could get more awkward, he turned his attention back to the woman. “So like… milk? Is that what is happening here?”  
  
“Yep~” She briefly pinched a teat, causing a trickle of milk to pour down her tit.  
  
Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Nilas started moving forward before he could think it through again. Yet, even as she moved closer, he found himself slowing down. His eyes flickered everywhere, barely glancing at her face or the chest he was, it seemed, going to be sucking on in just moments.  
  
Oh yeah, he was nervous as fuck. But, yeah it was pretty hot as well. He wasn’t going to lie. Even as weird as it was.  
  
Then, he was standing in front of the woman, staring down at her breasts and trying to stop his heart from just saying fuck it and doing a runner through the hole it was trying to beat in his chest. He eyed the quartet of thick nipples on one breast, looking more like a cow udder than a woman’s chest. “So like… do I suck one of them o-or all of them, or-?” She asked a little dumbly, unsure of where to really start.  
  
In reply, a hand curled around his head and shoved his face forwards.  
  
\---  
  
Eventually, right as the sun was beginning to set, the three finally shambled their way back to camp. Juyo looked conflicted, his bearded features contorted between embarrassment and satisfaction, a combination he didn’t think was even possible. On one hand, his stomach was full and the hunger pains had finally subsided, but on the other hand…  
  
Well, he had his ass fucked by a dryad-thing’s tentacle. Something like that hadn’t exactly been on his list of things to do before he died. The waterbender had to admit it felt good, though he wouldn’t, uh, actively seek it out again.  
  
Nilas wandered slightly behind the rest of the group, moving almost lethargically along with a content grin on his face. That had been pretty good, and now he was full and feeling the most relaxed he had been since he’d arrived in this place. Who knew all he’d needed was a run-in with nymphomaniacal plant-woman with a desire for nursing and anal. Unexpected, but not unwanted. What little shame he might have felt over the others being around had already faded, drowned out by the warmth suffusing his body from the milk and lingering pleasure.  
  
Meanwhile Booker was latched to Essy’s side, clothing disheveled and damp from milk. He had slowed his pace to match her shuffling, and sometimes stumbled as her roots churned the earth beneath her. He didn’t mind though, arm wrapped around her waist and head leaning against her side.  
  
“So, uh,” Juyo spoke up, clearing his throat to hide his own awkwardness. He had mixed feelings about Essy tagging along, especially since she seemed way too enthused about being the group bicycle. “Welcome to our, uh, camp. Such as it is. We got a neat little stream over there,” He pointed in its general direction, “For all your watering needs.”  
  
“I think you all help taking care of my watering needs for the time being.” She ruffled his hair and giggling at his embarrassment. She looked around their camp, situated in the middle of the wasteland. “It’s a bit… barren though.”  
  
“Yeah, it is,” Juyo admitted. “But it’s the safest place we can stay at for now. We don’t know where any towns or proper shelter are, plus everywhere else has been kinda… hostile.” He shivered at the thought of the tentacle monster and Minotaur. “But if you know of any safe places, we’re all ears.”  
  
The plant-woman pressed a finger to her lip, thinking for a moment. “Oh, but the forest is nice enough. Nothing that would really want to hurt you, and those tentacle plants can be very friendly~”  
  
Juyo gave her a blank look. “Essy, no.” He shook his head. “Not letting those things near me.”  
  
“Oh?” She mock pouted, her own little ones popping out to wiggle around. Her eyes glimmered playfully. “But you seemed to enjoy what mine could do.”  
  
“Yeah, well,” Juyo began to sputter, caught off-guard by the comment before regaining his composure. “That was… consensual. Those things would rape us, and very violently from what I gather. Totally different.”  
  
She looked surprised at that, lips parting slightly. “They would? I just thought they were very friendly. Now that’s not very nice at all…” Her brow furrowed slightly, looking a little conflicted. “It’s not fun when you’re not all having fun. Not at all.”  
  
“No, not fun at all,” Juyo nodded in agreement, simply happy to have some form of mutual understanding on the matter with her. “Anyway, I can do first watch if you guys want to rest. I’ll just be by the creek practicing close by.”  
  
Nilas nodded, yawning. The tiredness had set in now that his stomach wasn’t clawing at itself, and he sprawled himself out in the dirt with a happy groan. “Thanks for that Essy. God I feel great now.”  
  
She giggled at that, glancing around the two of them as if waiting for something.  
  
“I’m like ninety percent sure I have a new fetish now, so thanks for that.” Booker sighed in contentment, still leaning against her side.  
  
“New?” Nilas said from where he laid, sounding very amused even as he laid there with his eyes closed.  
  
Booker ignored the Aussie’s verbal jab. He reluctantly let go of Essy, since she couldn’t lay down and was fine sleeping upright, like a flower. Before he laid down though, she leaned down to give him a kiss, leaving his tongue tingling with the faint taste of mint. He went to sleep with a smile on his face and a raging hard-on.  
  
\---  
  
With a yawn, the recently-awakened Juyo rose and scratched his itchy backside, his other hand reaching to shield his eyes from the morning sun. “Mornin’,” he greeted Nilas, who’d taken his shift in the middle of the night. The two had quietly agreed that Booker simply couldn’t be trusted to keep awake, at least for now, and so they let him sleep blissfully in Essy’s bosom. Naturally, he’d be making up for it later with other chores later on. “How’d it go?”  
  
Nilas shrugged and yawned, rubbing his face. “All good. Literally, nothing happened. Well, thought I saw something flying around in the far distance but that’s about it.”  
  
“Swag,” Juyo stated in apparent satisfaction, nodding as he picked up his glasses he had set down beside him and began wiping at them with his increasingly-filthy clothes. “Another day of exploration ahead of us, I guess.”  
  
“Well, what do we have planned?” Nilas asked, standing and dusting himself off, before throwing a glance at the sleeping Booker and Essy. “Now that we’ve got, uh, a food source.”  
  
“Right.” Juyo also looked over the two peacefully slumbering and entwined in each other. “There was that sword, right? We had to leave it ‘cause we were starving, but now that it’s not the case we should be gucci to try and take it out. An actual weapon would be nice, even if we can’t use it properly.”  
  
The Australian wasn’t sure how successful that would be, but it meant a day at the Lake, which was a far nicer place to be than the dust bowl that was their current camp. And he knew that the Farm was around there somewhere, which would be really helpful. He nodded. “Alright. So… you want to wake them up?”  
  
Juyo nodded and moved to do so, prodding Booker’s ribs with his foot. “Wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey,” he said loudly, putting his barely-clearer glasses on. “Up and at ‘em, horndog.”  
  
He peeked open an eye and immediately shut it. He brought a hand up, pushing his glasses up and rubbing his eyes. “Ugh, we really should relocate to somewhere with some shade.” He slowly sat up, propping his torso up on an elbow and finding himself wrapped in all four of Essy’s arms. “And any chance I could get five more minutes?”  
  
“Not really, no,” Juyo rejected with a shake of his head. “I want to sleep in too, but we can’t get complacent just because Essy is here. We need to keep moving.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Booker sighed and pushed himself up, Essy still leaning on his back but not putting any weight on him. Her arms still wrapped around him she leant down and nuzzled the back of his head.  
  
“So where are we going today?” She released her grip and looked between the three of them. “I’ve only explored the forest and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this realm has to offer.”  
  
“We were thinking of going to the lake,” Juyo explained, nodding his head toward Nilas and shoving his hands in his pockets. “We found a sword there that we want to try and grab, plus there might be other stuff we might’ve missed since we were starving at the time.”  
  
“There’s a lake?” Essy perked up at the mention, chests bouncing slightly from the excited movement. “We have to go! Now! I wanna see it~”  
  
Nilas chuckled lightly at her reaction, eyes straying downwards for a moment as she jiggled.  
  
“Cool beans,” Juyo replied, also smiling at her antics. She certainly was a lively one, which he hadn’t realized was something they needed after the depressing last few days. “Then let’s get going.”  
  
\---  
  
It became quickly apparent to the other three that Essy hadn’t travelled very far beyond the forest before that point, if at all. When the world suddenly shifted again, and the horizon was suddenly nearly filled with shimmering blue water, she gasped loudly. She glanced around, swaying in place. “Oooh, that feels really strange still. But this place is wonderful. Does anyone live here?”  
  
Yet before they could answer, the plant-woman was already moving onto the grass and towards the shoreline.  
  
“Uh, hang on!” Juyo called after her. “Be careful, something might attack you from the water if you don’t stay sharp!”  
  
“I’ll be fine!” She waved back carelessly, obviously unphased by the idea. She hit the sand, churning it up as she bee-lined for the water; Splashing right into it.  
  
Nilas glanced at the other two, uncertain of what to do. His encounter from yesterday still at the forefront of his mind. Though… considering what he’d done yesterday… would it be so bad to play with a slime?  
  
Juyo warily kept an eye on her but shrugged in response. Ultimately it was her decision, if it really became an issue then they’d handle it.  
  
Booker watched as Essy shuffled into the water as fast as she could. He was unsure about her being so close to the shore and actually entering the water, but he was somewhat confident she could handle herself. She had half a dozen tentacles and easily lifted each of them up into the air. “I think she’ll be fine… probably.”  
  
“I mean… I doubt she’d be upset if a slime started to grope her.” Nilas said, chuckling slightly.  
  
“Essy, we’re gonna start walking down the shore!” Juyo told her, raising his voice so she could hear him over the splashing. “You gonna tag along or chill on your own?”  
  
The plant-woman was ‘standing’ in the water with her eyes closed and a small smile on her face, the water covering part of her ‘tail’. “I’ll catch up~ Maybe~ You know, this water tastes interesting. Nothing like the water in the forest.”  
  
“Um.” Juyo leant in to whisper at Nilas and Booker. “Isn’t that water corrupted or something?”  
  
“Yeah, there’s a demon factory set up on the cliff that’s basically dumping demon cum and milk into the lake.” Booker began to explain, motioning to the distant horizon. “I wouldn’t touch the water, it’s corruptive as fuck. They set it up in the first place because there’s some goddess out on an island in the middle of the lake, and they even set up rain traps to force her to drink corrupted lake water or wither up and die…” He glanced back to Essy. “Hey, Essy! Get out of the water!”  
  
“It can’t be that corrupted, right?” Nilas said, rubbing his chin as he thought. “I mean, things live in it that aren’t corrupt, and that farm probably gets its water from it. But yeah, leave it long enough and it will happen, unless the Cham...pion...” The young man trailed off, eyes widening slowly. “...Are we the champions?”  
  
Meanwhile, at the shoreline, Essy glanced over at Booker; Pouting. “Why?”  
  
Her pouting face made him hesitate, but it was for her own safety. “It’s filled with demon cum!” He called back. “It’s corruptive!”  
  
She frowned, huffing. “I can’t taste any if there is. Demon cum is disgusting.” She pulled a face, shuddering comically.  
  
“Well… if you can taste a difference then I guess it’s okay.” He faltered. “Nevermind.”  
  
“If that’s settled, let’s get going,” Juyo decided, waving them on.  
  
“No, but seriously,” Nilas said, “Do we know when we are in the… wow, this sounds weird, the canon story? If the Champion from the game is already here, things could get bad.”  
  
Juyo scrunched his brows in thought, scratching the back of his head. “I mean, how could we know? From what I gather, the Champion can look like anyone, and I imagine we’d see the effects of their presence before actually meeting them.”  
  
“I don’t know.” Booker shook his head and shrugged. “The Champion was sent by their village, but they weren’t really that special. That village sent a sacrifice once a year, and there are probably dozens of other portals into this world. That’s not including the ones that randomly open once and spit out poor bastards like us.”  
  
After a few moments, the waterbender nodded. “I guess we can’t really worry about it for now,” he directed at Nilas. “But all we can do is worry about our own survival.”  
  
“Right.” Nilas sighed, starting to head down the shoreline. “So uh, does anyone remember where the sword was?”  
  
Juyo looked around, trying to properly get his bearings. “I think I recognize that rock, the one that looks like a donkey head over there? We saw it not long before the sword. If we keep heading east, we should hit it soon.”  
  
“If you say so, lead the way.” Booker agreed, knowing almost nothing about basic navigation, land or otherwise. At that, they began to make their trek. Essy stayed back, humming happily to herself as she played in the water.  
  
As they walked along the beach, wary of getting too close to the water, they spotted two figures in the distance.  
  
One was a short, hunched over robed figure standing before a large black object sitting atop a fire. The other was much taller, appeared to be a man wearing an army green jacket, a backpack and blue jeans.  
  
They froze, surprised at finding actual people for once, and the shock only grew when they noticed the distinctly Earth-like clothing the second man was wearing. He seemed to be talking with the robed figure, but they couldn’t make out more than that.  
  
They approached, excited at the prospect of meeting other people. As they got closer it was clear that the robed figure wasn’t fully human, if the large rat tail sticking out of the robe was any indication.  
  
Booker looked to the other two. “Should we say something to get their attention? It doesn’t seem like they’ve noticed us yet.”  
  
“I don’t think they look hostile,” Juyo replied. “We’ll greet them at a distance, just in case though.”  
  
“Let’s hope he’s friendlier than the last guy,” Nilas said quietly, hanging back just a tad.  
  
However, just as they got in earshot, they all caught the tail end of the second, apparently Earth native, man’s statement.  
  
“-So, fourteen more dicks and you’ll be able to make a breastplate?”  
  
“...Maybe we should turn around before they notice us.” Booker half-whispered to Juyo, not quite sure if he was being serious or not.  
  
Nilas blinked in surprise, too confused to really say anything.  
  
“Uh, well…” Juyo was thrown off a little by the man’s question, for what he liked to think were obvious reasons. “You know what, making a judgment call here. Yo!” he called out.  
  
The man spun around, brandishing a long length of pipe and looking reading to bash in the face of Juyo before he paused. “Holy shit! People!” He cried out, dropping the pipe and throwing his arms into the air. “Halle-fucking-lujah!”  
  
The three couldn’t help but notice the neon green dildo in his off hand.  
  
The short rat man leant around the taller, long-haired human and squinted at the trio. “Oh my, what have we got here?” He piped up in a raspy old man voice.  
  
The three benders shot each other glances before Juyo elected to once again take initiative. “Uh… yeah,” he said awkwardly, unable to pull his gaze from the cartoonish dildo. “Shot in the dark here: you don’t happen to be from Earth, do you?”  
  
The man finished proselytizing before responding. “Three days! Three fucking days I’ve been wandering around this god-awful hellhole with only those horrible imps to keep me company!” He looked half-manic. “I had to kill the last one that tried to jump me! As well as that green gel bastard yesterday!” He shouted, brandishing the dildo furiously. It was then that they noticed how rough the guy looked, like he’d been in a fair few scuffles the past few days.  
  
He paused, took a deep breath, then continued calmly.  
  
“S-sorry… Had a rough couple of days…” He waved awkwardly. “Name’s Jet. Yes, I’m from Earth. Firstly, any of you guys hear of ‘Corruption of Champions?’” He asked, sounding half-dead all of a sudden.  
  
“Yeah,” Booker replied, feeling a bit nervous by the stranger’s manic energy. “I take it you have as well, otherwise you wouldn’t have asked about it.”  
  
Jet sighed deeply at the response. “Okay, okay, okay… So, I figure y’all have noticed that we’re pretty clearly there, right-?”  
  
“Oh, don’t mind me!” Came the raspy voice from behind Jet. “Not like old Rathazhul matters or anything! Just pretend I’m not here, I insist! Would you like to spit on me? Really rub it in that I’m filth unworthy of acknowledgement?”  
  
Juyo gave the rat man an odd look, quirking his eyebrow and unsure of how to respond to such an… emphatic statement. “Uh… I’m Juyo. Nice to meet you?”  
  
The old rat shrugged and turned to refocus his attention on the cauldron in front of him, grumbling all the while.  
  
“Uh,” Jet interjected, “Just ignore him, he’s kind of unexpectedly pissy about everything.”  
  
“Okay… if you say so.” Booker replied, staring at the old rat man. It was weird actually seeing an anthro… He was glad he was mostly covered up, it saved him the full effect of the uncanny valley.  
  
“Right…” Was the extent of Nilas’ reply, though he was less focused on the new human and more the actual anthro. Not that he could see much. Kind of reminded him of the Master Splinter puppet from the old TMNT movies.  
  
“Anyway,” Juyo spoke up, clearing his throat in an attempt to break the sudden awkwardness. He looked at Jet. “To answer your earlier question, yes, it’s been pretty clear, though we’ve been having a, uh, admittedly rough go at it so far. How about you?”  
  
“I’ve been nearly raped by a dozen imps, a naga, and that green gel bastard yesterday. I’m running low on water, food, and I haven’t slept since I arrived in this hellhole.” Jet stated, his eyes shrouded with two large bags. “Rathazhul here is the only friendly person I’ve come across so far, and he’s a lot more dickish than I remember him being.” He stated with the dildo pointed in the rat’s direction.  
  
The rat grumbled incoherently, the only audible words being ‘crazy woman-haired fuck…’  
  
Nilas blinked in surprise, raising his eyebrows. “Where the hell have you been staying? That’s a lot of things to run into. We’ve run into like one imp, a goblin, and a really persistent slime girl.” He was quiet for a moment. “Oh, and the others ran into a minotaur.”  
  
“Haven’t stopped travelling, just looking for a safe place. Hasn’t worked out very fucking well so far as I’m sure you can tell.” He growled through gritted teeth as he rubbed his eyes.  
  
“We were in pretty bad shape as well. We were slowly starving until we found some… uh, source of food just yesterday.” Booker blushed slightly and glanced back at Essy in the far distance still in the water. “We’ll totally willing to share with you man, but uh, there’s a bit of a catch involved.”  
  
Jet turned and squinted his eyes off in the distance that Booker had glanced in, and after a few moments, he locked his eyes on the tall plant girl that was splashing around in the water. “I ain’t getting no tentacles up my ass.” He immediately asserted. “Back door’s exit only.”  
  
“It actually isn’t that… bad…” Juyo started to defend before shaking his head. “Wait, what am I even saying? Whatever, I’m sure Essy won’t mind so long as her titties get sucked.” He shrugged. “Honestly man, you look like you need some sleep bad. We take watch shifts at night, so you can at least have some peace while sleeping.”  
  
“No shit I obviously need sleep, Sherlock.” Jet snipped back before visibly cringing. “I get bitchy when I’m sleep deprived, sorry.” He finished with a shrug. “Anyways, who’re you guys anyways? I’ve been kind of assuming that I was in one of those bullshit Chosen One situations until you showed up.”  
  
Juyo waved him off then shoved his hands in his pockets, turning to look at the lake. “Don’t worry about it, man, this place can get to you.” He sighed. “We’re staying at a camp in the wasteland, right by a creek we’ve been using for water. It feels like we’re on Mars, but you can see for miles and get a lot of warning if some nasties are heading your way.”  
  
“I’m surprised you didn’t find the farm…” Nilas glanced around, “Though I suppose with how big this place is and the warp fuckery it’s not too surprising.”  
  
“I’ve been looking for the damned farm, but I can’t find the damned place! The Beautiful Sword either, or that travelling merchant guy, Guacamole or whatever his name is. Just a shit-load of imps. And that clingy-ass Naga when I had the brilliant idea of trying to find Tel’Adre in the desert.” He shuddered. “Stay out the the desert man, holy shit was that scary.”  
  
“Yeah, we were pretty aware of that,” Nilas replied, looking at Jet like he was a little stupid. I mean, who went to the desert without being strong already? “But we know where the sword is. Found it the other day. Turns out pulling out a sword stuck hilt-deep in a tree was pretty fucking hard. Who knew.”  
  
Jet’s eyes widened, and he took a step back, quickly scooping up the pipe as he did so. “...The Beautiful Sword is only impossible to draw when the Champion is corrupted.” He stated, eyeing the group rather warily.  
  
Nilas took a step back as well, looking surprised as he lifted his hands. “Whoa hey. I might be depraved but I’m not corrupt. We’ve been here just as long as you have, how could we be corrupt already?”  
  
“By eating the shit you find laying around, drinking the shit you find laying around, being in the wrong place at the right time, by just being an asshole at the right time…” He stated warily. “It’s difficult to not get  _some_ corruption in the game, let alone in real life when one actually  _needs_ to eat and drink…”  
  
“I can understand the concern buddy, but we’ve been pretty careful. We haven’t touched any lake water and the only thing we’ve had to eat, uh, consume, was a few tiny crabs and a lot of breast milk.” Booker pointed out. “Plus, the sword didn’t burn any of our hands. We could touch the handle just fine.”  
  
Jet gave them a leery look. “And where did you get the aforementioned crabs…?”  
  
“The lake shore and I know what you’re implying, but it was like three tiny crabs each.” Booker countered. “If we were doing it consistently then it’d be a problem, but it was a one-time thing. You can get more corruption being an asshole in some circumstances than you can by eating seafood from the lake…. Though I’m not keen on doing it again.”  
  
“Wait, crabs can have corruption?” Juyo asked nervously.  
  
“Anything living in the lake has corruption, only a little bit for some things, though…” Jet grimaced. “Regardless, even if it didn’t burn you, not being able to draw the sword is strange. It came out of the tree like butter for the Champion.”  
  
“Thing is, we’re probably not the Champion,” Juyo pointed out, and Rathazhul scoffed with a declaration of ‘damned right.’ “Though…” He glanced at Nilas and Booker, figuring they’d catch his meaning. “We might be something else.”  
  
“Oh yeah, we got elemental bending like from Avatar The Last Airbender.” Booker lowered his stance, spreading his feet apart slightly before stomping on the ground. A small fist sized rock jerked free from the ground and hovered in the air, wobbling and dipping, clearly on the verge of falling back down.  
  
Jet stared for a few seconds, then shrugged. “I know I’m severely sleep deprived because I can’t find it in me to care that I’m seeing magic in action right now.” He stated with a grimace. “Fuck my life, what did I do to deserve this…” He grimaced further. “And the one fucking time I went hiking without one of my swords, the one fucking time…!”  
  
Booker dropped the rock and tilted his head slightly. “You go hiking with a sword?”  
  
“I live in Northern Canada where there are bears and getting a gun is too much of a hassle up there!” He snapped back at the tallest of the group.  
  
Booker perked up slightly, lower his arms and shifting back to a more casual stance. “Oh hey, you’re from Canada too? Neat, I’m from BC.”  
  
Jet shrugged. “Northwest Territories.” He didn’t seem to care one way or the other, though he was very obviously sleep deprived.  
  
“It doesn’t matter where you’re from you crazy pony-tailed freak, you’re stuck here in this pile of stinking demon shit known as Mareth with the rest of us, where nothing you do will amount to anything and you’ll die a pointless, meaningless death after accomplishing nothing!” Rathazhul half-hysterically cried out, which earned a long, quiet stare from everyone else.  
  
“He seems to be in a bad mood.” Booker commented, trying to recall if the rat dude was that pissy in the game. He didn’t say it out loud of course, that would be weird and rude, talking about someone like they weren’t there. “Any idea why or is it just life in general?”  
  
“Maybe because he lives in Mareth.” Jet dryly offered, which earned another scoff from the rat man.  
  
“I hate this place.” Was the only thing the short rat man stated as he continued to mix his bubbling cauldron. “And this jackass specifically too. Crazy overly-familiar lunatic…” He stated with a gesture towards Jet.  
  
“I can’t say I disagree with the first statement,” Juyo sighed, shaking his head. Arguing with an angry stranger would get nowhere fast. After a moment, he looked over at Jet again. “Anyway, did you wanna try grouping up with us? Figure it’s better than wandering alone aimlessly.”  
  
Jet seemed wary but shrugged. “Y’know what, fuck it. Being able to sleep without having to worry about an Imp trying to shove its dong down my throat while I’m out alone would make it worth it.” He dropped the pipe and offered a hand. “I mean, even if you three have absorbed a little, it does take a fair bit of corruption before it starts making one go all dark side and shit.”  
  
“Gucci mane,” Juyo smiled. “Welcome to the struggle bus.”  
  
“Is that what we’re calling ourselves?” Booker asked, amused by the name.  
  
“What else do you call a bunch of dudes randomly dropped in a hellish porn world and have to suck a dryad’s titty to survive?” Juyo replied.  
  
“I mean, we could eat shit and transform,” Nilas added in, shrugging. “But I’m saving that till later, I think.”  
  
“I refuse to be a part of any kind of man bus you guys may be forming.” Jet stated dryly.  
  
“Irregardelessly,” Juyo stated as the entire rest of the group cringed and grimaced at his raping of the English language. “Are you two, uh,” He vaguely gestured at Rathazhul and Jet. “Done with whatever business you got?”  
  
Jet shrugged. “Not enough gel to get armour made, unfortunately, so yes.” He stated with a scowl.  
  
“How effective would gel be for armour anyway?” Booker wondered aloud, trying to imagine what gel armour would even look like.  
  
“And why are you using something’s dick to make it?” Nilas gave said dick a sideward glance.  
  
Jet raised an eyebrow at Nilas. “Because it’s what was left over when I killed the Green Gel that attacked me yesterday? And yes, gel armour is perfectly functional in the game’s early stages.”  
  
“Okay, I just don’t see it.” Booker shrugged.  
  
Nilas glanced at him with raised eyebrows. “You can earthbend, and that is what is stretching your S.O.D?”  
  
“Well yeah.” He deadpanned.  
  
“Think of it like a gambeson, padded armour, it gives, distributes impact force and is highly resistant to cuts.” Jet responded back.  
  
“It’s nothing like a gambeson you ponytailed fuck…” Rathazhul grumbled in the background.  
  
“Who gives a shit if it’s like a gambeson or not,” Juyo groaned. “We’re wasting time at this point, we really can’t get complacent just because of our, uh, generous donor back there.” He jerked a thumb back toward Essy, who was slowly making her way to join them.  
  
Rathazhul looked up, looking ready to insult everyone again, when his eyes turned as wide as saucers and he suddenly about-faced, leaving his cauldron bubbling alone as he started making his way towards the forest.  
  
Nilas stared at the rat-man with a confused expression for a moment, before glancing in the same direction as him. Down at the water, it seemed that the plant woman had run into one of the resident goo girls, which was currently wrapped around her in a pulsating blue film from the chest down. She was talking it seemed, and briefly glanced their way. Noticing them staring, she easily lifted an arm from the goo-girl’s embrace and waved happily at them. Then suddenly, a curious look crossed her face as she began to move down the beach towards them; Keeping to the water as she did so.  
  
“Who’s that with you?” Essy called out, her smile returning. She focused on Rathazul. “Hello!~ You look familiar, have we met?!~”  
  
At that, the short, elderly rat man took off like a bolt of lightning towards the treeline, his legs carrying him faster than any old man had any right to move, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.  
  
Juyo shot the retreating Rathazhul a baffled look before turning to face Essy. The instant he spotted the goo girl, he let out a loud “Eep!” and jumped in the air. “What the fuck, Essy?!” he cried, unsure how to feel about anything and everything he was seeing. Didn’t one of those things almost drown Nilas just yesterday?!  
  
“I don’t know if I should be concerned or not,” Booker commented, watching the goo-girl almost pulsating while wrapped around Essy.  
  
Nilas watched the rat take off, eyes wide in surprise. “Holy shit, he can move.” He glanced at the departing figure and Essy, expression curious and wondering. “And you know him?”  
  
Essy, meanwhile, seemed unphased by her current guest; Save for a light flush to her face and the fact that said guest was slowly growing a touch whiter. “What? It just came over while I was drinking. She seems really friendly.”  
  
A head suddenly formed from the mass, the face looking very similar to Essy’s own. It smiled at them, though didn’t move from where it was. Then she giggled and glanced towards where Rathazul had fled. “I dunno. He looked a little familiar. I ran into someone wearing a similar cloak once, and had some fun~”  
  
“Just… whatever, if it’s really not bothering you, then do what you want, I guess,” Juyo sighed, apparently giving up on her. “Essy, this is Jet. Jet, Essy, our current food source.”  
  
“You ain’t sticking anything up my butt.” Jet stated to Essy flatly with an equally flat expression.  
  
The plant girl pouted, though really didn’t seem too put out by it. “Are you sure?~ I promise it feels amazing.” One of the woman’s tentacles rose up and over her shoulder, waving lightly in the air. “Just ask these three~”  
  
Nilas coughed, his face flushing a tinge even as he fought a grin. Juyo, meanwhile, tried and failed to whistle as he looked away. Booker meanwhile crossed his arms obstinately. “I don’t regret a goddamn thing, and neither did these jack offs if you heard what I heard.”  
  
Nilas turned his head to give the man an unimpressed look. “'Jack offs?' Really?”  
  
Essy seemed to be thinking similarly, a small frown on her face. “Booker, you shouldn’t talk about your friends like that. It’s not nice~”  
  
“Sorry…” He grumbled under his breath.   
  
“Backdoor’s exit-only.” Jet asserted, crossing his scuffed-up arms over his chest, green gel dick still in hand. “End of discussion.”  
  
Essy shrugged, still not looking at all disappointed. “Your loss~” She suddenly gasped, her breasts bouncing a little more in the slime’s embrace, and glanced down. “Oh my, someone is getting playful. What are you going to do now?”  
  
As if in reply, several small wriggling pseudo-tentacles began to worm out of the blue girl’s surface, beginning to lengthen slowly into full tentacles that began to hesitantly wave in the air. The goo girl was still smiling, now looking like she could be Essy’s blue-skinned sister.  
  
“Nope,” Juyo declared, shaking his head and already power-walking down the beach, away from the increasing number of tentacles in his near vicinity. “Nope, nope, nope.”  
  
Jet was locked in-step with Juyo, having only paused to pick his pipe back up with a groan and a grumble about degeneracy.  
  
Booker stared at the sight, unsure how to react until he reluctantly pulled himself away from it and followed the other two.  
  
Nilas stared for a moment, looking curious and interested. “Huh, so they can mimic things. That’s pretty cool.”  
  
“I know right.” Essy replied, touching the tips of her own tentacles to the slime’s playfully, giggling and waving them around. The goo girl did its best to mimic, even making a burbling sound almost like laughter. “If I’d known there were others like this around, I would have left the forest a while ago!”  
  
Suddenly, the goo girl shuddered and slowly slid off the plant woman. ‘Standing’ a little bit shorter, its body shuddered and shifted till it was almost identical to Essy’s. It smiled and moved back towards the water, disappearing under the surface with barely a ripple.   
  
With the Goo girl's departure, Nilas turned and moved to follow the rest of the group, with Essy following along a moment later, a grin forming on her noseless face as she addressed the Australian. “So, you’re not feeling hungry are you?~”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The real Four Dudes starts here.


	11. Chapter 11

The group jumped not soon after they all mutually decided to start moving away from the lake, and quickly found themselves in the forest.  
  
“...Is this where we were intending to go?” Jet asked nobody in particular as he glanced around the wooded location. “I’ve been trying to avoid this place because of the Tentacle Beasts…” He stated as he rested his pipe on his shoulder. “I’ve also got a small knife on me, in case anyone needs a weapon, by the way.”  
  
“We encountered one a couple days ago,” Juyo said with a nod. “We were able to keep our distance long enough to teleport back to our camp, though. For now, the plan is to gather resources and get the lay of the land as much as possible. Hopefully find some non-rapey civilization too.”  
  
“Don’t think there was any of that in the forest,” Nilas said as he caught up to the rest of the group alongside Essy, “But then who knows what things might change or have changed since this isn’t a game.”  
  
“Well here’s hoping we can find some surviving villages.” Booker chimed in, not exactly feeling optimistic about that prospect.  
  
“I haven’t seen anything, but this seems like a big forest.” Essy said, glancing around idly. “There could be people somewhere. There’s even this really dark, thick part of the forest. I didn’t go in far, since something felt… off.”  
  
“... Define  _off_ ,” Juyo slowly replied, casting a nervous glance deeper into the trees.  
  
“The Deep Woods are dangerous, filled with strong monsters and a lot more tentacle beasts. There’s also fey shit in there, like gay fairies and kitsune that’ll try to trick people into following them.” Jet interjected. “Gay girl fairies, to be specific.”  
  
The mention of fey, especially the fairies, seemed to pique the plant woman's attention, but she stayed quiet for the moment.  
  
“Huh.” Juyo scratched his beard in thought. “What’re the chances of them potentially being recruited to help boot the demons off this world?”  
  
“Nil. A baseline human can grab and have them at their complete mercy. Virtually defenseless. The Kitsune are… Not something we’ll want to encounter, or at least spend too much time around as well. They’re reality warpers, or at least extremely powerful illusionists if I’m remembering correctly, so fucking with them would be a very bad idea.”  
  
“They’re reality warpers?!” Juyo sputtered. “Shit, do they even care that demons are taking over their world?!”  
  
Jet sighed. “They’re hedonistic and selfish to the extreme. I imagine they don’t care about Mareth’s situation so long as the demons don’t try to fuck with them directly. We’d be little more than toys to them, I wouldn’t recommend trying to like, convince them to fight or anything.”  
  
Juyo sighed and shook his head. “That’s disappointing,” he grumbled.  
  
“Well, that’s a little disappointing,” Nilas grumbled as well.  
  
Jet continued. “If like, you wanted to have  _a_  roll in the hay with them, it should be safe, but  _don’t_  seek them out for seconds.”  
  
The Australian rocked his head from side to side, thinking it over. “I mean, that’s pretty cool. I might. Still, those sound like they’d be useful against the demons like he said.”  
  
“Are you sure about that? I vaguely recall some bad end happens if you follow them into their home…” Booker mused aloud, trying to recall half-forgotten details of the game.   
  
“Let’s just err on the side of caution when it comes to possible reality warpers,” Juyo suggested, setting his hands on his hips. “If we find one, just be polite and back off. Sounds like they’re more trouble than they’re worth.”  
  
“Yeah, sure.” Nilas nodded, then glanced to the side. He frowned, and quickly scanned the area. “So… Essy disappeared.”  
  
“Well, that’s lovely.” Jet stated as he glanced around to try spotting the wayward plant woman. “She usually disappear on you guys?”  
  
“We met her just yesterday dude.” Booker shrugged, looking around for any sign of Essy.  
  
“Ah… Well, she’s pretty damned big, I imagine she can take care of herself.” Jet asserted with a shrug. “So, we’re foraging for food, yeah?”  
  
“Si,” Juyo replied. “Essy milk is, uh, great and all, but we really need more variety in our diet.”  
  
“Well, fair enough. I can’t remember what is and isn’t a transformative, but it seems like-” Jet suddenly froze up, “Imps!” He declared as he brandished his pipe like a bat.  
  
Before the rest could respond, a high-pitched voice shrieked from the bushes. “Who’s ready for a good ol’ dickin’?!”  
  
At that, a pack of imps winged out into the small clearing, cackling and fondling themselves as they surrounded the four guys, their tiny wings somehow keeping them aloft and at eye level. To the group’s dismay, they realized they were forced against the trunk of an enormous tree, leaving them no easy escape route.  
  
At the sight of the small, disgusting demons idly hovering around them, Juyo gritted his teeth and felt his whole body tense up with rage. “Jet,” he growled, extending his hand. “I’ll take that knife.”  
  
Jet drew the small survival knife with the paracord-wrapped handle and passed it over to Juyo. “Aim for the jugular.” Was all he said.  
  
“Gladly.” Juyo’s eyes darted to each imp he could spot. “There’s seven of ‘em. Any ideas, folks? Otherwise, I’m gonna get to stabbing.”  
  
Booker fell into a low stance, ready to call up rocks to defend himself. He warily eyed up the demons and grimaced in disgust, their massive dongs flopping about. “Well I don’t have a knife so that won’t work for me, but I think a rock will work well enough.” He tried to sound confident but felt scared, unsure how to handle himself in combat.  
  
“Do we really need to do that?” Nilas asked, sounding a little faint and very uncertain. His eyes didn’t stray from the imps, however, wide open and darting about. “I mean, they’re tiny. We could just plough through them and leg it.”  
  
One of the Imps flashed a toothy smile Nilas’ way. “Oh, yeah boy, I’d just  _love_ for you to turn around and present that tight little boy pussy like a good sub!” He declared as he crassly stroking his over-sized dick.  
  
Nilas blinked, briefly stunned. He glanced towards the others. “Did… he just say ‘boy pussy’ unironically?”  
  
“As if we needed another reason to kill them all,” Juyo replied. “Look, if we let these things live they’re just gonna rape someone else, or follow us and bring more to finish the job.” His grip on the knife’s narrow handle tightened as his eyes narrowed at the imps. “We have no choice.”  
  
“Less talking!” Jet snarled, furiously charging forward. “ _More killing!_ ” He declared, rearing back and swinging his pipe full-force at the nearest imp, who seemed shocked still at Jet’s ferocity.  
  
A loud, meaty crack filled the air as the pipe connected and partially caved in the imp’s skull, causing the beast’s body to fall out of the air and spin to the ground, impacting with a wet thud and slight splattering of blood and grey matter.  
  
Nilas winced, glancing away briefly and looking faintly ill.  
  
Juyo took the opportunity, shouting as he lunged at the nearest stunned imp. It was distracted, staring at its recently-fallen comrade when he thrust the knife into its chest. The demon squealed in pain as the knife sank into its angry red skin, falling to the ground from the force of Juyo’s tackle.  
  
The imp screamed, its pitch-black eyes wide with fear and outrage. His own eyes blind with rage, Juyo ripped the knife out and then quickly stabbed it in the throat, its screams becoming a wet gurgle. He viciously twisted the weapon, and the imp’s feeble resistance ended.  
  
“Oh my god.” Booker uttered in shock as he watched Juyo stab an imp to death. He flinched and looked away, sickened by the gore and sounds of death. He knew it was necessary but left him feeling disgusted.  
  
Still, he managed to stomp on the ground to pull up a fist sized rock and glared as threateningly as he could at the nearest imp. He didn’t launch it, unsure if he could, leaving them in an impromptu staring match. The imp evidently as shocked as Booker was by the sudden displays of violence.  
  
Jet swung again at the next nearest demon, but missed and received a scratch across his cheek for it. “Fucking  _die_ you little rapist shit!” He snarled, clearly in no mood to be putting up with the short red monsters as he continued to shout random obscenities and curses like a madman.  
  
“Quit resisting and just  _take it_  pathetic mortal!” The imp screeched as it bobbed and weaved around Jet’s wild swings, flailing its clawed hands at him all the while. “You’re getting two in the ass  _at once_  for what you did to Roy!”  
  
One of the remaining imps didn’t wait, taking advantage of Nilas’ momentary distraction to zip towards the him and slam solidly into him. The Australian gasped in surprise when he bounced off the tree behind him, cracking his head against the trunk hard enough to see stars for a moment.  
  
A weight pulled him off-balance, and he tumbled to the ground in a flailing heap. Sharps jolts of pain danced down his body as the imp clambered over him and onto his back. He reached back and caught hold of its tail. “Get the fuck off me!”  
  
He yanked on it, earning a pained yelp from the imp, who retaliated by sinking his clawed hands into the Australian’s ass. “The fuck!”  
  
“I told I was going to get some of this boy pussy!” The red-skinned creature growled, its hands starting to actually grope. “Turn this sweet ass into my little glory hole! Damn it’s soft! You sure you’re not a girl?! Can’t tell with that long hair!”  
  
Nilas’ eyes widened, and he jumped backwards into the air; Coming down on his back and the imp. He very deliberately ignored the hard pressure against his back as he tried to pull the imp off at the same time he got to his feet. “Like hell you are!”  
  
Meanwhile, Juyo was charging at the remaining two imps. He roughly shoved one to the ground before tackling the other, screaming as he stabbed again and again at it. This time the imp was prepared, however, managed to grip Juyo’s knife arm with one hand while the other slashed across his chest.  
  
Juyo hissed in pain, but adrenaline pushed it aside for the most part. He grabbed the imp’s nose with his free hand and twisted,  _hard._ The unexpected move caught the imp off-guard, and as it frantically grasped at its nose, Juyo was able to finally thrust the knife at its throat.  
  
As the infernal light left the imp’s eyes, Juyo leaned forward so that his mouth was to its ear. “Your entire race is forfeit,” he growled with clear bloodlust.  
  
The imp cackled, filthy blood oozing from its mouth. “Good luck,  _bitch_ ,” it gleefully retorted. “Everything exists for us to  _fuck_!”  
  
“ _And that’s why_.” Juyo finished with a stabbed it once more in the heart. That time, it finally died.  
  
Booker continued staring down with the imp standing opposite of him, both of them visibly horrified by Juyo’s brutal killings. The imp stood there hesitantly, moving a few inches forward, only to stop dead in his tracks when Booker threatenly gestured to the rock…. As best he could. He stomped once more, and managed to pull up another fist sized rock, which was enough to make the imp pause and take a step back.  
  
Nilas hissed in pain as the imp’s claws sunk into his rear again. He was pretty sure it had drawn blood that time. And then he felt teeth sink into it through his pants. “Damn you taste good, pretty boy!”  
  
Anger flooded him for a moment, scowling at nothing as the muscles in his arm bulged. He finally yanked the imp free from his back, sending lances of pain where its scrabbling claws landed, and swung it around to slam into the dirt; Dazing it. The Australian staggered to his feet, and went in for an angry kick. Still off-balance, he missed. “Fuck!”  
  
The imp took the chance to shake itself off and roll to its feet. Nilas couldn’t stop himself from noticing that the thing’s dick was pretty much completely hard and jutting out in front of it.  
  
Nilas was caught off guard by the sight. “Jesus..!” So of course it wiggled it from side to side, grinning lewdly as its already glowing eyes seemed to glow brighter. He groaned and slapped a hand to his eyes. “Fuck, just attack me instead. Don’t do that shit. Come on.” Of course, that was a dumb idea. Since the imp did exactly that. “Oh god, get your dick off my face!”  
  
Jet threw his pipe at the imp he was fighting, causing it to fall out of the air and to the ground, sputtering and wheezing from the impact knocking the breath out of its lungs, and immediately Jet was upon it, pinning it to the ground with his knee and punching the monster-full force in its face and throat.  
  
“Disgusting!” Jet pulled back, and threw his fist in its eye. “Wretched!” Another fist to the Adam’s apple. “Unclean!” Another to the nose, which let out a sickening crack and a pained cry. “ABOMINATION!”  
  
He roughly grabbed the imp by the its face, then lifted it and started smashing the back of its skull against a hard rock, the creature too stunned to fight back by that point.  
  
“FUCKING DIE!” Jet snarled, and eventually, the back of its head split open and its contents came pouring out like raw, chunky sewage.  
  
Juyo was too busy panting heavily and taking a moment to notice the imp he’d previously shoved to the ground sneak up behind him. With a not-terribly-impressive warcry, the imp leapt on his back and immediately began slashing at him with its claws.  
  
“Gimme that knife, gimme!” the imp demanded. “I’m gonna cut off your dick and shove it up your own ass, while I fuck you in the ass myself!”  
  
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Juyo cried, falling to the ground as tears fell from his eyes. The imp licked the side of his face with a long, sinuous tongue. As he saw the disturbingly-prehensile tongue enter his vision, Juyo moved impulsively and without a single coherent thought.  
  
He bit down on it and  _yanked._  
  
An ungodly scream of pure agony filled his ears, and before he could process anything else the imp was free and scampering away as fast as its little legs could carry it.  
  
“We just wanted a good fuck,” it sobbed, blood dribbling down its chin. “Is that too much to ask?!”  
  
His current prey slaughtered, Jet grabbed his pipe as he leapt to his feet, wound up and threw it at the little abomination currently fleeing from Juyo, it was laid out flat by the impact of galvanized steel to the back of its head.  
  
A gut-wrenching scream suddenly filled the area, jolting Nilas as he fought to keep the imp dick currently sliding across his face from actually hitting anything important. Like his lips. He didn’t know if it was embarrassment, shame or something else, but everywhere the hot flesh touched almost seemed to burn with heat.  
  
The imp, who had paused at the scream for a moment, cackled as he tried to force it off him, sinking its teeth into his hand where it pushed at the creature’s face at the same time it clung to big fistfuls of his long hair. “See?! You’ve already got the perfect handles for a good face fuck! Come on, open up!”  
  
Desperate, and running out of choices, Nilas went with the first idea that came to mind. One hand wrapped around the imp’s dick and held it firm as it tried to jab against his face. He could hear the imp take in a sudden breath, and he opened his eyes to see it grinning down at him lewdly.  
  
Just as it was about to say something most likely lewd, the Australian brought his other fist launching upwards between its legs. Solid knuckles met soft, sensitive flesh and the soft-faced demon let out an oddly bird-like cry; High-pitched and fluttery.  
  
It let go of his hair, to try and cup itself from the pain, and Nilas took the chance to throw it to the ground. Snarling, he laid several hard kicks into its side.  
  
The imp that had been staring down with Booker frantically looked between his fallen brethren, and clutched his head in horror. He rapidly shook his head. “You guys promised nobody was going to get hurt! We were just going to have some good wholesome rape, not brutally assault people!”  
  
He jumped off the ground, his tiny wings flapping as he tried to escape.  
  
“Oh shit!” Booker exclaimed as the imp start to fly into the air. He reflexively pushed his palm forward, and the two rocks shot out. The first one barely missed the imp’s clawed feet, but the second rock managed to clip it’s wing. With a startled cry it spiraled and fell back to the ground, dazed after hitting its head.  
  
It quickly found a foot pressing hard against its neck.  
  
“H-H-H-Hey h-h-h-h-hold on a sec here, buddies!” the imp begged, gawking up at Juyo. “L-Let’s talk about this, huh?! W-W-We’re just joking, y’know? Just another boy’s night out! Just some jokes! What’s a little rape between pals, right?!”  
  
“Every. Single. Demon.” At every word, Juyo pressed his heel harder and harder into its neck, cutting off any retorts it might have. “Is going to die.”  
  
As the imp sputtered and gasped for breath, he bent over and shoved the knife through its eye. Its struggles ceased.  
  
Juyo shook, murmured “Oh, fuck,” and then collapsed on the ground in an exhausted heap. “Uh… I can’t tell if that’s my blood or not.”  
  
In the background, Jet brought his pipe down on the head of the still unconscious imp he’d knocked out moments earlier like a hammer on a railroad spike, resulting in a small explosion of gore. “ _One day, all your kind will meet the same fate_.” He spat before he marched over to the rest of the guys, his nostrils flaring and chest heaving as he came to a stop near them, saying nothing as he caught his breath.  
  
Nilas stared down at the imp groaning at his feet, having quickly looked away from what was happening to the rest of them. He knew why, and that it was necessary, but he wasn’t about to do it himself.  
  
Booker stood off to the side, disturbed by the sights of gore and brutality he had witnessed. He knew it was necessary but he was still sickened by it. “Jesus Christ.” He quietly muttered.  
  
“...Anyone have dibs on this one?” Jet asked, pointing his pipe at the still living imp.  
  
“Go to town,” Juyo allowed, waving his hand lazily through the air. “Fuckin’ exhausted.”  
  
Jet brought the pipe back up, then it came back on down like a judge’s gavel on the demon’s skull delivering righteous justice. Mercifully, it caved in but didn’t explode. “No prisoners, not when they’re  _demons_.” He declared as he dropped on his rear and crossed his legs beneath him. “So, everyone okay-” Jet looked around at everyone, and stopped to stare at Nilas. “Your face is covered in- Oh Christ, you poor bastard.”  
  
Nilas stared off into the distance between the trees, face blank. “Yeah… it’s sticking to my beard. And it kind of burns.” He took a deep breath in, them seemed to regret it when the smell reached him. “I think I’m going to burn it all off.”  
  
“Might not be a bad idea, in all honesty, knowing how corruption works...” Jet responded with a grimace. He then looked over at Juyo. “You okay dude?” Silence hung for a few moments, and Jet shrugged. “Guess he just realised what we did.” He stated in an exhausted voice.  
  
“Yeah, stuff certainly happened,” Nilas said quietly, not lingering too long on the effects of the fight. “You’ve only been here three days, right? You’re… pretty relaxed about doing… this.”  
  
“I’m on the verge of passing out, dude.” Jet responded with a  _very_ weary sigh. “Plus, knowing what kind of sick shit these little abominations do makes it real easy to feel nothing resembling sympathy for them. Not to mention that the fuckers have been trying to rape me since I arrived. Haven’t slept a fucking wink thanks to these bastards.”  
  
“I feel ya man.” Booker responded, with his back still turned to the grizzly scene. “Though you must be running on fumes by now. We should probably get back to camp, and away from… this.”  
  
“That would be a good idea, but first…” He stood up, sautered over to the nearest imp, and starting digging through a pouch hanging from its waist. “There we are.” He stated, lifting up a small, colourful gem for the others to see. “These little bastards carry gems, and Rathazul doesn’t offer his services for free.”  
  
“Oh, good thinking,” Booker replied, glad that their new companion remembered to loot the bodies… It was a bloody affair but they needed the gems more than the imps did.  
  
After a minute, Jet had finished cleaning out the pouches, and actually took a few off of their bodies, after dumping out the transformative imp food. “Coin purses, right?” He stated with a shrug. “One for each of us. Hang ‘em off your belts, or something.” Jet groaned as he rubbed his eyes. “Christ, I need to sleep. Someone get Juyo on his feet and let’s head on back to your camp unless you want to be spending the night among these corpses when I pass out.”  
  
\---  
  
As the four shambled back to the camp, Juyo rubbed his eyes and fell to his knees. “I’m gonna just…” he mumbled before letting out a long, drawn out yawn. “Y’know, pass out. Sorry guys.”  
  
It seemed as though Jet had beat him to the punch, already fallen face-first in the dirt and breathing very steadily and rhythmically.  
  
Nilas staggered past the camp and towards the small flowing stream, before dropping down and dunking his head into it as much as possible while furiously scrubbing his face. He didn’t come up till he was desperate for air, before popping up with a gasp and falling back. Panting and coughing, he took a moment to catch his breath, then sniffed and groaned. “Oh god, I swear I can still smell it. I might actually have to burn the hair off.”  
  
“That sounds incredibly dangerous,” Booker commented, feeling weary but not as worn out as his companions. “Plus we lost our fire bender and survival expert, so no fire for the time being.”  
  
He glanced to Jet and was concerned by him sleeping face down, and went to flip him onto his side. With a bit of effort he managed to flip him over, so at the very least he wouldn’t smoother himself during the night.  
  
“Yeah well, you’re not the one with a face covered in demon pre…” Nilas grumbled in return as he wandered back to the main section of the camp and slumped down.  
  
Booker grimaced. “Fair enough.”  
  
The blonde was silent for a moment, eyes closed and just looking tired and lost. He could still see and hear the carnage of the fight in his mind, and the aftermath. Finally, quietly, he said, “Hey Booker… you know a lot about CoC, right? Am I remembering it wrong, or did imps have sex magic?”  
  
“Yes, yes they did,” Booker replied has he created a low, flat stone seat for himself. “We’re lucky none of them tried to cast any spells. I think all they knew was arousal and that obviously wouldn’t be very effective against a group of people.”  
  
“Right. That’s good to know I suppose.” After another moment, Nilas glanced towards the new arrival where he lay passed out. “So… seems like we’ve got another… interesting person here.” He didn’t say that he was a little worried about how violently the man set upon the imps, but if he’d been harassed by them previously it wasn’t unjustified. Just worrying. Of course, the Australian was going to keep that to himself for now.  
  
Booker glanced at the sleeping Jet, then back to Nilas. “Well to be fair, he apparently hasn’t gotten any sleep in the last few days.” He shrugged. “I suppose this place really is terrifying without any sort of help whatsoever. As fucked as we are, at least we’re all fucked together…. Hopefully not literally.” Only after saying that out loud did he realize how dumb it sounded.  
  
Nilas snorted once in amusement, but said nothing else. He was too tired to even talk, and his body stung where the imps claws had cut into him during the fight. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was bleeding a bit under his clothes, but wasn’t in the mood to check. The silence lasted for a little while longer. “So… where’d your girlfriend get off to?”  
  
“Essy?” Booker asked in slight confusion. “She isn’t back yet… obviously.” He lazily gestured to the seemingly needless wasteland all around them, the only sound being the wind in the distance and the weak trickling of the stream nearby.  
  
“You know… it’s a bit odd she disappeared right before we got attacked.” Nilas said, looking up at the sky. “Not that I think she was with them. She could have kicked our asses by herself, with how strong she is.” She’d been able to lift him right up into the air with no trouble, after all.  
  
“Yeah… probably wandered off instead of going straight back to camp with us. Shame, that. She could have beat all of those imps herself.” Booker sighed rubbed his face, feeling the events of the day begin to weigh on him.  
  
Nilas made a confused face and glanced towards the larger man. “What? No man, she was with us in the forest as well. She was hanging around with me. She disappeared literally a minute or two before the imps showed up.”  
  
“Then I have no fucking idea dude,” Booker replied in exasperation and weakly threw up his hands. “It’s Mareth. This place is fucked. How could imps even jump us if we seemingly teleport between locations? You figure that one out.”  
  
“Well, we don’t seem to teleport as much when we’re somewhere consistently.” The Australian stated, having noticed it while moving around. “Like at the Lake, remember. Things were pretty constant there. No real shifting around. The forest must be similar.”  
  
“Hm… point.” Booker replied, thinking over what Nilas had said. “We don’t seem to teleport while within an area, not really. Plus I suppose natives to this fucked up realm have much more experienced than us at travelling around.” He shrugged.  
  
“Probably.” Was the only reply before things went quiet again. “Guess we’re done for the day. Others are out like a light, and I’m not up for shit.”  
  
“I guess I’ll take first watch.” He glanced at the sky, the glowing red sun still hanging up above. “I’m not that tired, so I can last for a while longer.”  
  
“Try to stay awake this time, man.” Nilas sighed, closing his eyes. “I don’t think we’re in that much danger here, from what I remember of the game, but better safe than sorry.”  
  
“Yeah, and I’m waking you up once I’m done. I don’t think Mister Canuk over here,” Booker pointed towards Jet, “will be responsive, and Juyo is…” He paused as he glanced towards the blood soaked man. “Probably going through some serious shit at the moment… I mean we all are, but you know.”  
  
Nilas grunted once in reply, already sounding distant as he faded into sleep.  
  
Booker sat there in silence for a few minutes, hunched over, occasionally glancing up to survey the surrounded wasteland. He sighed and lifted his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. “Fucking hell, I guess today was the first baptism by fire. There’s going to be many more… just know it.”  
  
He sat up and leaned back, glaring at the harsh red sky. It reminded him of how it looked when a major forest fire was happening. Even when far away the smoke still blotted out the sky, making the air smell like smoke and the sun burning red. It was an oppressive view, and only served to remind him how far from home he was.  
  
“Damn… really wish Essy would show back up.” He quietly uttered. They had met only a day before but he was going to take any comfort he could in the hell he found himself in.  
  
\---  
  
The quiet sound of something dragging across the dirt disturbed the almost smothering silence of the camp, slowly growing louder and louder.  
  
Booker looked up, wondering what the source of the noise was. It was tough to see, only a dark red moon serving as a faint light.  
  
The sound grew louder, a constant smooth sound that implied something heavy. The source quickly revealed itself as a sweet voice hummed quietly, and Essy slid into view.  
  
Booker perked up and smiled. “Hey, Essy.” He weakly waved at her. “Where did you go off to? Kind of disappeared on us once we left the lake.”  
  
“Hmm?” The plant-girl cocked her head at him, smiling. “Oh, I was just taking a look around the forest again. It was nice to be back. But it got kind of boring, and I ended up back here.” Then her smile seemed to drop slightly, as she seemed to unfocus for a moment. “I smell blood. A lot of it.”  
  
“Yeah…” Booker slowly answered, uncomfortable with the topic and averting his gaze from her faintly glowing eyes. “We ran into imps after we left the lake, they attacked us, and…” he paused for a moment, unsure how to phrase it. “We… we killed them all, seven of them.”   
  
“You… killed them?” Essy’s brow furrowed slightly, looking uncertain. “Why?”  
  
“Well, I didn’t personally.” He muttered, then shook his head. “They attacked us and wanted to rape us. Jet and Juyo did most of the fighting, and they made sure to kill all the imps.”  
  
“But… killing them?” The plant-girl shuffled awkwardly where she stood, glancing at the bloody remnants covering Juyo and Jet. “Was it, was it necessary?”  
  
“Yes, yes it was. It was gruesome but necessary.” He sighed, and rubbed his face. “They’re imps, they would have run off and raped or enslaved other people if we let them live. They would have told others about us and then we’d be in danger as well. I’m not exactly comfortable with it but I think it was necessary.”  
  
“...I see.” She muttered quietly, standing there unable to tear her eyes away from the blood for a moment.  
  
“Yeah.” Booker softly replied, unsure what to say next.  
  
“Will… will you be killing others as well?” Essy’s eyes met Booker’s, looking uncertain still.  
  
He stayed silent for a few moments before responding. “Yes, probably. I don’t like it, but… probably. I hope you won’t judge me… too harshly for that.”  
  
The plant-girl glanced down, rubbing her arm. “Just… imps are demons so they’re bad. But, some of the aggressive creatures that live here don’t seem to know any better. I don’t think they deserve to die for it…”  
  
“What creatures are you thinking about?” He asked, not wanting to make a promise he knew he wouldn’t keep. Minotaurs aren’t demons yet he knew they’d end up killing the bovine bastards.  
  
“Well, the tentacle plants in the forest… the satyr are friendly, just get very excited… the bee women. There are lots of them.”  
  
“Well, we’d be doing our best to avoid tentacle monsters in general.” He slowly responded. “As for bee girls, none of us wants eggs up our butt, but they’re friendly otherwise. I don’t think any of us would have any problem with them.”  
  
She nodded, looking a touch relieved. Then she wrinkled up her face. “I’m happy to hear that. If you want to feed again, you will be able to find me in the forest. This place unsettles me… and I can smell nothing but blood.” And with that the woman turned and slid away, seemingly shimmering out of existence.  
  
“Night.” He muttered to the darkness.


End file.
